Dhal makhani

This is another one of our favourite Punjabi recipes. As usual just like any other North Indian recipe, I used to grind onion/tomato paste, pressure cook and add cream at the last. Archana gave me the near perfect recipe yesterday and the result was a mouth watering Dhal Makhani just like we taste in the restaurants. Thanks Archana.

Also I feel cooking is also an art. First time I try to follow the recipe(whatever I learn) to the "T". Then the next time I like to do some variations. Probably I would like to substitute urad dhal/rajma with Whole green gram dhal(muzhu pachai payaru). Also  coconut can be used instead of fresh cream. Let your imaginations run wild :-) and I bet the result will be delicious.

Ingredients
Black urad dhal-1/2 cup
Rajma- 1/2 cup
(soak separately for 8 hours)
Onion- 2 medium sized
Ginger juliannes a few
Turmeric- 1 teaspoon
Chilly powder-2 teaspoons
Garam masala or channa masala powder-1 teaspoon
Fresh cream- 1 cup

(You can afford to add chilly powder and green chilly as the fresh cream is going to nullify half of the spiciness)

Make a paste of the following
Tomato-2
Poppy seeds(couscous)- 2 tables spoons soaked for 8 hours
Green chillies-2
Cloves-2
Cinnamon-2
Tips:First add green chillies, cloves, cinnamon, soaked poppy seeds and half a tomato.Make a smooth paste of this paste and then add rest of the tomatoes. If you add everything together it will become watery and it will be difficult to grind the poppy seeds to a smooth paste.

For seasoning
Ghee- 1 Tablespoon
Cooking oil- 1 Tablespoon
Jeera-1 teaspoon

Procedure

1. Pressure cook rajma and urad dhal separately with salt needed for both the pulses. Rajma needs more cooking time than urad dhal. Slightly mash both the cooked dhals.

2. In the same cooker, add 1 tablespoon of ghee and 1 tablespoon of oil. Season it with jeera and add the chopped onions. Fry the onions with a little salt until they are golden brown in colour.

3. Add turmeric, chilly powder, garam masala or channa masala, fry for a minute.

4.Add the tomato/poppy paste, ginger juliennes, salt and mashed rajma and urad dhal.

Add a cup of water at this stage as poppy seeds and fresh cream will thicken the gravy.

 5. Mix it and add half of the fresh cream. Give a stir and pressure cook(3 whistles).Switch off the stove.

6. Open the pressure cooker and the you can see that the aroma of ginger and fresh cream are wafting through the air. Transfer it to a serving bowl.

 7. Add the rest of the fresh cream on top and serve it.