“The worst looking and best tasting dish of the year” – yes you heard that right. This is the feedback of a renowned food critic John Curtas in Las Vegas after tasting dal makhani for the first time in his life.
This humble and rather plain looking dish has extraordinary taste and flavour. Anyone can get hooked onto this dish. No one can imagine how this simple dish can taste so exotic and make or break the reputation of a restaurant.
Almost every hotel/restaurant in India tries to make their dal makhani unique and more delicious than their competitors. They even correlate the restaurant name with that of their own recipe of dal makhani.
I can’t think of a person who dislikes this delicacy. It is a soul food for many and even carnivores who consider their meal incomplete without meat will end their dinner with a serving of the dal. This lentil is a staple of the Punjabis and is loved by the entire Indian nation. Made with butter and cream, this is an unhealthy killer on your waistline. This dal is also known as “kali dal” or “maa ki dal” – meaning “black lentil” or “dal made by my mother” – and tastes as good as without the butter and cream.
The secret to make dal makhani without having to add too much butter and cream is the number of hours you slow simmer the lentils. Traditionally the lentils were simmered overnight on extinguished tandoors. The idea behind cooking them on extinguished tandoors is to slow simmer them over very slow yet constant heat so that the lentils mellow down and turn soft. Some recipes even call for the entire process to stretch to 36-48 hours.
Some of the recipes even call for the addition of rajma (kidney beans) and chana dal (split chicpea lentil) along with the black urad lentil. The idea behind adding these extra lentils is to make the dal makhani even richer.
The dal makhani without butter and cream is similar to other lentils in calories – it is the butter and cream that add calories to this dish. To make a healthier version of dal makhani without compromising too much on the taste, replace butter with olive oil and cream with milk and prolong the cooking time to compensate for the fewer rich ingredients.
In one of the hotels where I previously worked, I had appointed a cook especially for making dal makhani everyday as per my recipe. He followed my recipe and would get the dal makhani tasted and approved by me before serving it to guests. The result was a finger licking dal and a lot of guest appreciation. We used to have regular guests coming to the restaurant only for the dal makhani.
The non-vegetarians in India can’t stop thanking the inventor of butter chicken, for bestowing upon mankind the ever so creamy and sumptuous delight. The vegetarians on the other hand echo similar sentiments about dal makhani. For those who love both this delicacies I would make an announcement – do you know that butter chicken and dal makhani were created by a single man? Kundan Lal Gujral, the founder of Moti Mahal Restaurant chain, is believed to be the brain behind these lip-smacking dishes.
Kundan Lal revolutionised the art of preparing dal makhani, using the recipe he learned while he was working in Mukhey da Dhaba in Peshawar in the 1940. The owner Mokha Singh handed over the restaurant to him after his health deteriorated and Kundan Lal renamed it as Moti Mahal. Post partition, Gujral migrated to Delhi and carried on the Moti Mahal legacy by opening his first outlet in Daryaganj, Delhi and carried on the legacy to establish his chain of restaurants as we all know today.
The invention of dal makhani is closely linked to the invention of butter chicken. I will discuss that in a separate column.
Dal Makhani
Ingredients
Whole urad lentil 2 cup
Water 8 cups
Salt 2 tbsp
Ginger, chopped 1 tbsp
Butter, unsalted 2/3 cup
Oil 1 tbsp
Kasoori methi 1 tbsp
Degi mirch powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Tomato puree 1/2 cup
Honey 1 tbsp
Cooking cream 1 cup
Chili powder 1 tsp
Asafetida powder a pinch
Garnish
Cream to garnish
Green chilli to garnish
Method
Add 2 tablespoons of salt to the dal and rub to remove the polish/ dirt from the lentil.
Wash and soak in water with salt and ginger.
Leave it overnight to expand in a heavy bottom vessel.
Next day cook the dal over very slow flame with a hot plate under the cooking vessel.
Add some butter, red chilli powder, coriander , asafetida powder while the lentil is simmering.
Stir continuously to avoid burning the lentil.
When the dal is cooked thoroughly, add tomato puree and simmer till the raw tomato flavour evaporates – about 15-18 minutes.
Mash the dal using the back of the ladle, this will make it more tasty.
Finish with cream, broiled kasoori methi, honey and adjust the consistency.
Adjust the seasoning and serve hot with bread or rice.
* Chef Tarun Kapoor, Culinary Mastermind, USA. He may be contacted at [email protected]
Dal makhani
