Dhal (also spelled dal or dahl) is a staple of many Indian cuisines, eaten by rich and poor. Dhal, as a staple, has a long history in India possibly dating back as far as the Indus Valley Civilisation (c 2500 BCE–1700 BCE). There are hundreds, if not thousands of different types of dhal. The term dhal refers to both dry pulses and cooked dishes made from pulses. Dhal can be a very simple dish made from lentils and a few spices or a very rich and elaborate dish.
Dhal makhani is a north Indian dish, popular in Punjab. It is one of the most decadent of all the dhals. It is enriched with butter and cream. I tend to only make this dhal when I have guests. This recipe is rather time consuming, but freezes well, so I tend to make a large batch. There are many different recipes for dhal makhani, here is mine, which combines Dishooom’s with Felicity Cloake’s version.
Ingredients
Method
Notes
300 g urid dhal
1 large stick cinnamon
6 black cardamons
- Soak the dhal over night
- Rinse well and place in a large pan and cover with 4 litres of water.
- Add the cinnamon stick and the slightly crushed cardamon pods
- Bring to the boil and cook for about two and a half hours, until the dhal can be easily squashed between your fingers
- Make sure that you skim off any foam that comes to the surface and top up with boiling water to ensure that the dhal is well covered.
- Drain the dhal over a bowl and keep the cooking liquid. Remove the cardamon and cinnamon stick.
- Slightly crush the dhal with a potato masher
Urid (urad) dhal is also known as black gram. It can be found de-hulled and split. You need the whole pulse which looks a little like a mung bean with a darker skin.
It is very important that you cook the dhal sufficiently, otherwise you will not get the creamy texture.
You need to ensure that some of the dhal remains whole.
15g fresh ginger
6 large garlic cloves
2 green chillies – deseeded
4 tbsp ghee
2 onions
1.5 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
0.5 tsp Kashmir chilli powder.
75 g tomato purée
2 tsp garam masala
salt
50 g butter
100 ml single cream
- Grind the ginger, garlic and chillies into a paste with a small splash of water.
- Finely dice the onions
- Melt the ghee in a pan and stir in the onions – gently cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the ginger, garlic & chilli paste and cook for a further 2 minutes stir regularly to ensure that the garlic and onions do not stick.
- Add the coriander, cumin, Kashmir chilli – stir well and cook for a further 2 minutes
- Stir in the tomato purée and 100 ml of the dhal cooking water. Cook for a further 5 minutes,. Regularly stir to ensure that it does not stick.
- Add the spiced tomato mixture to the semi-crushed dhal, and just cover with the reserved liquid from cooking the dhal.
- Cook gently for a further hour, stirring regularly. Add more liquid as needed.
- Stir in the garam masala and season to taste. Gently cook for a further 15 minutes.
- Stir in the butter and cream
You can easily make your own ghee by melting unsalted butter in a heavy based sauce pan. Keep on a medium heat and skim off the foam as it rises to the surface. once the butter is totally clear strain into a heat proof container. It will keep for several weeks in the fridge.
If you run out of cooking water, just add plain water. I think that this dhal should be a fairly thick consistency.
Garam masala is a blend of spices that is almost always added towards the end of cooking. It is easy to make your own.1
- There are numerous different recipes for garam masala, I use the recipe from Dishoom: Dry roast in a frying pan 1 black cardamon pod, 4 cloves, 1 large cinnamon stick, 10g coriander seeds, 5g cumin seeds, 4g fennel seeds, 2g star anise, 1 bay leaf, 2g mace blades, 10g white poppy seeds, a pinch of saffron (optional). Leave to cool then add 0.25 tsp ground nutmeg. Grind everything to a fine powder. This will keep for a couple of months in an airtight container. ↩︎
