Dal Makhani...

So, after a year I'm finally back to doing what I like most... cooking... and the recipe that has been on my list for a long long time is Dal Makhani... I got the recipe from here, but as usual made a lot of adjustments so the below is my version of Dal Makhani and it tasted fabulous... and one tip I can give you is, the more you cook it the better it tastes....honestly it tasted even better the next day. I think going forward if I want to serve Dal Makhani for lunch I'll prepare it the previous night :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole black lentils
• 1/2 cup Kidney beans
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 4 green chillies, finely chopped
• Paste of a 2 inch piece of ginger and 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp cumin-coriander powder (freshly ground)
• 1 tsp cardamom powder (freshly ground)
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 1 tsp dried Fenugreek leaves ( Kasuri Methi )
• 3 tbsp butter
• 4 cloves
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tomatoes (pureed)
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup cream
• salt to taste and chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Method

1) Soak the lentils and kidney beans overnight.

2) Cook them in a pressure cooker for 7-8 whistles (until it is quite mushy). Remove from the cooker and mash the lentils.

3) Heat the butter in a pan and add the cloves, cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, cumin-coriander powder,bay leaf, ginger-garlic paste, chillies and onions. Saute until aromatic and onions gets soft.

4) Add the Tomato puree and cook till the raw tomato smell leaves.

5) Add the lentil mash and salt and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6) Add the fenugreek leaves along with cardamom powder, stir and then add the cream and cook for 5 minutes.

7) Add the tomato sauce and water and cook well.
8) Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and a dollop of cream.

9) Serve with rotis or plain rice.