Dal Makhni

Name: Dal Makhni
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup black gram dal/ karuppu ulundu; 2 tbsp rajma/ red kidney beans; 1 no bay leaf; 1 inch cinnamon; 3 no cloves; 1/4 tsp turmeric powder; 3/4 tsp rock salt; 1 tsp refined oil; 1 tbsp butter; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 2 nos green chillies; 3 small garlic cloves; 1 tsp ginger; 1 small onion; 2 tbsp tomato puree; 1 tsp coriander powder; 1/4 tsp turmeric powder; 1/4 tsp garam masala; 1 tsp red chilli powder; 1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder; 2 tbsp thick cream; a handful fresh coriander leaves; 1/2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves.

Published May 21, 2020 · Updated May 21, 2020

I love a good dal makhni. There are multiple restaurants where I literally just have this without any rotis/ chapathi. My mil’s dal makhni will have a little extra cinnamon taste in it which I actually really like. So I have been wanting to document it & finally got around to doing it. But as the day would have it, if something has to go wrong it will anyways go wrong. My mil has been making this makhni for years now and each time it comes out perfect/ consistent. The day we were documenting it, I kept telling my mil how much I love her version which is slightly accentuated with the cinnamon in it and we kept making the dish. But both of us didn’t realise that we hadn’t added any cinnamon while boiling the lentils 🙂 and even while adding all the dry spices, I kept smelling and saying awesome but it didn’t strike me initially that we were continuing to miss out adding cinnamon or cinnamon powder at this stage. Suddenly, I asked my mil – soat what stage do you add cinnamon and that’s when she realised we had missed it while boiling the lentils and while adding the dry spices. So we threw in some cinnamon powder as soon as we realised it. Now for those of you who have an intrinsic love relationship with whole spices, you will be able to distinctly make out the difference in taste while adding cinnamon bark vs cinnamon powder. So I had that though the taste was still great. So for a few minutes, I contemplated on not blogging this but then I thought it would be best for me to have this up here and for me try it out again later (with 0 guidance from mil that way) to see if the dish turns out the way it normally does. In the recipe below, I have mentioned cinnamon bark while boiling lentils (I normally do not deviate/ write down something different to what was done). However, literally the only difference in what we did was adding cinnamon powder while adding spice powders instead of adding the cinnamon bark initially and the taste was 99% her usual one (the 1% is probably just my naaku/ tongue that could make out the difference having using the powder) :). I also note that everytime I am not very convinced about the dish made for the blog, it somehow reflects on the final pic. Case in point below. I was super reluctant to blog this at first that I almost dismissed the idea of clicking even the final pics. But then I thought in case I change my mind, it would be help and I did change my mind after all because I realise that everyone has their not so great days in kitchen & we all do some jugaad/ manipulations to get the taste we want. This was one such dish :).

Dal Makhni

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

25 mins

Soaking & cooking dal

10 hrs

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 2 people

Ingredients

1/2 cup black gram dal/ karuppu ulundu
2 tbsp rajma/ red kidney beans
1 no bay leaf
1 inch cinnamon
3 no cloves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp rock salt
1 tsp refined oil
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 nos green chillies
3 small garlic cloves
1 tsp ginger
1 small onion
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
2 tbsp thick cream
a handful fresh coriander leaves
1/2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves.

Instructions

Soak 1/2c black gram dal & 2T red kidney beans (rajma) together in water. Leave it overnight.
Next morning (or after 8-10 hours), discard the water. Fill fresh water (till the level of the pulses).
To this add 1 bay leaf, 3 cloves, 1 inch cinnamon, 1/4t turmeric powder & 3/4t rock salt.
Pressure cook for 8 whistles. Turn off heat & let the pressure release naturally.
Take out the dal and mash with the back of a ladle. If mashing seems a little difficult (but the pulses are cooked well), give the whole cooked dal a pulse in a mixer jar.
Set this aside.
Crush together 3 garlic cloves & 1t ginger (or give it a pulse in a mixer jar). Slit green chillies length wise & chop 1 small onion into small/ fine pieces.
In a wide pan/ kadai, heat 1t refined oil & 1T butter. Once hot, throw in the cumin seeds.
When they start to splutter, add green chillies & crushed ginger garlic. Give it a mix.
Add onion & saute till it turns translucent.
Now add tomato puree & all the dry spices – 1t coriander powder, 1/4t turmeric powder, 1/4t garam masala, 1t red chilli powder, 1t kashmiri chilli powder and mix well.
Add 1t water if you find the mix too dry (no need to add more oil/ butter) and close with a lid and let it cook for a few minutes.
Once the raw smell weans off (roughly 5 minutes), add the cooked dal, 1/2c water and let the mixture come to a boil. Check & adjust salt here.
Add thick cream & mix everything together.
Finally add fresh coriander leaves & dried fenugreek leaves (crush them in between your palms).
Mix well & turn off heat.
Serve hot alongisde rotis/ chapathis or rice.

Recipe Notes

We forgot to add cinnamon stick while cooking the dal & so added 1/4t cinnamon powder while adding other dry spices.
Tone down the chilli powder & chilli if spice isn’t your thing.
Fresh cream would also be perfect for this. We always have some thick cream at home since they have longer shelf life.
Despite leaving your dal to cook for 8 whistles, you might find the dal undercooked at times (depends on the pulse/ dal variety). If so, pressure cook them once again for a few more whistles.

Stepwise pictures