Daal Makkhani

Made this for the first time a couple of weekends ago. Took some guidance from various recipes off the internet, some handy hints from mother in law and some additions of my own! Below is the resulting recipe -

Ingredients (for 5 people):

Base - 

1. 150gm Sabut Urad

2. 1 cup Rajma (Red Kidney Beans) if not soaked or 1 400gm tin of red kidney beans soaked in salted water

Cooking Medium - 

3. 50gm butter

4. Clarified Butter (ghee) - 2 table spoon 

Spices - 

5. Cinnamon Sticks - 4-5

6. Bay Leaves - 2

7. Cumin Seeds - 1 tea spoon

8. Ground chilli powder - 1 tea spoon

9. Turmeric Powder - 1 tea spoon

10. Coriander Powder - 1 tea spoon

Gravy (Tadka) - 

11. Ginger - 20gm

12. Garlic - 2 cloves

13. Onion - 3

14. Tomatoes - 3

15. Green Chillies - 2

Garnish - 

16. Fresh Coriander leaves

17. Fresh Cream - 125ml

Advance Preparation:

Soak the daal and rajma (if not tinned) overnight for faster cooking.

Recipe:

• Boil the soaked daal and rajma with a little bit of salt in pressure cooker (use the same water in which it was soaked). If soaked overnight, then 5-6 whistles should be enough. Check the daal for being soft as undercooked daal could spoil the dish! If there is extra water in the pressure cooker then keep it aside because you will need it to bring the thick daal to right consistency before serving :-)
• For the gravy -Peel the onions and quarter. Wash the tomatoes and quarter. Cut the chillies into halves. Peel the garlic cloves. Peel and slice ginger. Put everything together in the food processor bowl and pulse until smooth. Alternatively you can chop (dice) these ingredients very finely and mix them together.  
• Heat the butter and ghee in a pan on medium heat. When it starts to bubble add the dry spices. Roast for a couple of minutes or until the cumin seeds change colour to golden. Then add the gravy paste. 
• Keep stirring the paste until it - a. Changes to a dark red colour b. The raw tomato smell is gone c. The gravy leaves the sides of the pan and starts coming together. This could be anything between 15-20 min. 
• Drain any excess water from the pressure cooker and stir in the cooked gravy. Let it boil on low heat for about 20 min. Keep adding the excess water if the mixture becomes too dry.
• Once boiled & bubbling, add in about 100ml of fresh single cream and boil again for about 20 min. At this point the daal will begin to change colour from greenish brown to rusty brown. 
• Add salt to taste. 

Serve hot garnished with fresh cream, coriander leaves and ginger sticks.

Whilst cooking

Final Dish