Dal Makhni
Indian black lentils slow cooked for hours with butter, cream and ghee
Ingredients
- 500 grams indian black lentil whole with skin
- 200 gram butter
- 200 gram cream
- 500 ml milk
- 4 tsp ghee cow
- 2 tbsp tomato paste/ puree
- 1 tbsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp red chilli powder
- 1 tbsp kashmiri chilli Powder
- 1 tbsp garam masala Raakshas special, see blog post
- 1 and 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 and 1/2 tbsp dry fenugreek leaves kasuri methi
- 5 tbsp coriander leaves chopped
Spice bag-
- 1 tbsp fennel seed
- 1/4 tbsp clove
- 1 tbsp blackpeppercorn
- 2 bay leaf medium
- 3 sticks cinamon 2 inch each
- 1 star anise
- 1 mace
- 2 black cardomon crushed
- 8 green cardomomn crushed
- 1 green chilli mild, whole with stem
- 1 and 1/2 inch ginger
Tempering-
- 2 tbsp ghee cow
- 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
For washing the lentils-
- 3 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp salt
Instructions
- Wash the lentils 3-4 times or until the water no more looks cloudy or dark.
- Drain out that water. Put some fresh water, the vinegar and salt, required for the rinsing.
- Leave for 15 minutes. This will cause a reaction that turns the lentils brown and helps remove impurities.
- Drain out the the liquid. Wash and rinse the lentils throughly 2-3 times to make sure the vinegar and salt have washed off.
- Soak the lentils in fresh water for minimum 6 hours or maximum overnight.
- Drain the water again.
- Fill a large vessel with water and add the lentils, keep the flame high untill you see all the foam on top. you can either skim all the foam or you can drain out all the water along the foam. Once you got rid of that foamy water, fill the pot again with fresh water till the neck.
- When it comes to a boil add the spice bag. lower the heat and add turmeric power, red chilly and kashmiri chilly powder and the salt.
- Add less salt if you use salted butter.
- Let it simmer with lid on for 2 hours at a low heat.
- Take out the spice bag.
- Add the butter, Fenugreek leaves, Garam masala and tomato paste.
- Keep the heat at the lowest and place a hot plate underneath the vessel.
- Tempreture should be around 80 to 90℃.
- Cook with lid on for 3 hours.
- After 3 hours mash the lentils a little bit. The grains should have become soft enough to be mashed. Dont mash all the lentils into a fine paste. 80% of the lentils should remain firrm breaking when touched.
- Now add the ghee,
- Burn a piece of charcoal untill its red. Place a mini bowl in the vessel. Place the hot coal in the bowl. Put a little ghee on the coal.When you see it smoking. Put a lid on the vessel and put some wieght on top of the lid not letting the smoke escape for 20-30 minutes.(note: skip this step if you are already cooking on hot coals)
- Add the milk and cream.
- Cook for 1 hour with lid on while stirring occasionaly and mashing the lentils at a constant tempreture.
- Add the chopped coriander leaves and the prepared tempering.
- Turn the heat off.,stir one last time and put the lid on for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
- The end product should be creamy mushy with a melt in your mouth texture.
Notes
- Traditional dal makhni doesnt have a tempering of onion and garlic.
- Its only made with black urad dal and no other kind of bean or lentil is added.
- If you are adding milk then make sure the lentils are mushy and mashed before you add the milk. This will release the starch in the lentils which prevents the milk from curdling.
- You can have aditional ingridients in your tempering.