Dal Makhani

Whenever we have guests home we typically cook a proper North Indian meal with Dal, Roti, Sabji and Chawal unless they are South Indian food lovers.In North Indian, there are so many things that we could cook, but given the time and effort, you always want to cook something tasty and quick so that you can relax and spend time with the guests rather than in the kitchen. In North Indian cuisine, I always loved Dal Makhani - it has been my most favorite dal and I have always ordered that whenever I have been to the restaurant. In my growing up years I have always been intrigued to find out what goes into this dish. After I started cooking, every time I had been to a restaurant for dinner, I started guessing the ingredients. First thing I noticed was it was made of Black Urad dal with traces of Rajma (Red Kidney beans). Slowly I started taking my chances on the ingredients and started trying at home. Everytime I cooked, I started getting closer to the taste as I kept varying the spices used. But there was something missing. Once when shopping for grocery in Norway, I checked out MDH masala and it had the Dal Makhani Masala. I brought that one and believe me when I cooked my Dal Makhani with the usual ingredients and just added this readymade masala on the top, the taste just changed! I got the taste that I was looking for so many times I made this dish! I know this masala is ready made, but it just saves my time and effort in churning out a beautiful dish!

Dal Makhani is considered one of the richest dal in terms of calories. The Makhan(cream) in the Makhani is the culprit for all the calories, but the reason for the creamy texture of the dal. It would be an indulgence  for the fitness freaks. Hence I got into the quest what best can I do to reduce the calorie intake keeping the creaminess of the dal intact. I tried using Dahi (yogurt), but then the dal looked curdled. The next best alternative I could think of was Milk. And voila! the result was superb. I got the same creamy texture as any other restaurant Dal Makhani would do and this one was healthy too! Over the period I realised that Black Urad Dal when cooked also adds to the creaminess of the dal. This has now become one of my signature recipes that I have improvised over last 2-3 years.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup black whole urad dal with 12-13 grains of Red Kidney beans (rajma) (soaked in water for 7-8 hours)
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds (jeera)
• 3 tsp crushed ginger and garlic (or ginger garlic paste)
• 1 medium onion finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes finely chopped (or fresh pureed tomato)
• 1 green chilli finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1 tsp chilli powder or as per the spice desired
• 2 tsp corriander powder (dhaniya powder)
• 1 tsp cumin powder (jeera powder)
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp MDH Dal Makhani masala
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 tsp oil
• Salt to taste
• Corriander leaves (for garnish)

How to make:

1. Cook soaked Black whole urad dal and Red Kidney beans in a pressure cooker for 5-6 whistles (rajma takes time to cook) and let it cool till the pressure in the cooker is released.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, add oil and let it heat on medium heat. Once hot, add cumin seeds and let it crackle.
3. Add ginger garlic paste and chopped green chilli and saute for a minute. To this add onion and fry till
4. it become clear.
5. Once clear, add turmeric powder, chilli powder, corriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala powder.
6. Fry till the masala leaves oil. Keep the heat low to make sure that the masala does not burn.
7. Add tomato or tomato puree to this masala and cook till tomato turns mushy and oil leaves the sides of the pan.
8. To this add the milk. This gives a gravy consistency. Cook for 3-4 minutes and the gravy will turn thicker.
9. Once the gravy is thick add the cooked Dal mixture, add salt and bring it to boil. Add water as required to get the consistency (not too thick, not too thin)
10. Finally add the MDH Dal Makhani masala and let the dal boil for 5-10 minutes in low heat.
11. Garnish with chopped corriander leaves. (optional: you can swirl in a blob of cream now to make it more presentable. I do it when I have a party ;-))

Tip: For the tomato puree, you could either use the ready made puree or make the puree at home. To make it at home, use the following step:

- blanch the tomato in hot boiling water for 10 minutes and then peel the skin.

- grind the tomato pulp in the blender

Methi Pulao

I know it has been a very very long time since I have actually blogged a recipe. After my brief stint in Norway I headed back to India and got entangled into the corporate IT jungle and the hustle bustle of Mumbai life. I was itching to update my recipes, but could hardly find time as I was working almost 13-14 hrs a day on an important Govt. Project. 

After almost a year staying away from my husband, I was yearning for a normal life. Finally my husband made it back to India and shortly after that he got an assignment in the UK. Since both of us were working for the same company now, I tried for a project in the UK so that I could live with my husband. After a long haul over my release from the current assignment, I was finally successful in securing a project. In UK I had the opportunity and time to cultivate my culinary skills further and was happy noting each recipe I make to the details. Unfortunately, I never got the time to post them. My friends and colleagues there used to coerce me to post recipe to the blog I created almost 2 years back. Though I used to share the recipes personally with them, I never came back to writing a blog about the experiences. 

Now I am in Sydney, Australia. Been almost 3 years that I started this blog. I feel it was a negligence from my end that I am not pursuing my interest and have just been blaming time. With that thought in mind and the encouragement that I have being receiving from my husband, family and friends around the globe, I have decided that I will start posting recipes and my experiences with cooking - Indian as well as local recipes from the places I have traveled over the last few years. I hope you would live the experiences and enjoy them as much as I have the pleasure of posting them to you.

Having said that, let me tell you I am having some great times in a short while I have been in Sydney. Thanks to Deepak's Childhood Buddy Ashish and his wife Prachi who had made our stay in Sydney very comfortable from the time we have landed in the city. Since I have crowd here, it gives me the natural high to keep experimenting with food and try new recipes. I have the best critic - my husband as well as very supportive friends who encourage me to keep up to my passion.

So last weekend I had 3 bunches of methi (fenugreek leaves) brought from our local wholesale market. It was so fresh that I didn't want it to just wither away. 

Hence on Thursday night after dinner I started picking the leaves stem by stem and it took me almost 2 hrs to complete and was totally exhausted and cribbing to my husband what a waste of time picking methi was! Understanding my exhaustion, my poor hubby helped me pick the last bunch. 

Weekends here are usually spent with Ash and Pra and it was decided that they would come home for dinner on Friday night. Since I had a lot of methi leaves, the usual idea was to make curry out of methi accompanied by roti. But then I thought roti would be too usual and to have a great start to the weekend, I 

should make something different. Thus the menu was decided that I would make Methi Pulao, Dal makhani and Cucumber and Mint raita.

Methi Pulao is very easy to make if you have all the necessary ingredients handy. The main taste changer of the pulao is the home made Garam masala, which goes well with other pulao recipes too. So if you have this one ready then making any type of Pulao is an easy job!

Ingredients:

For Garam Masala

• 2 Bay leaves (tej patta)
• 2 small cinnamon sticks (dal chini)
• 2 cloves (laung)
• 2 cardamom (elaichi)
• 1 tsp poppy seeds (khus khus)
• 1.5 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
• 2 tbsp corriander seeds (Dhaniya)
• 3-4 Dry red chillies (depends on how spicy you want) (sukkhi lal mirch)
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds (jeera)

For Methi pulao

• 2 Bay leaves (tej patta)
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds (jeera)
• 2 cups Basmati Rice (washed and soak for 10 min)
• 2 medium onions (cut into thin vertical strips)
• 1 medium tomato (finely chopped)
• 2 tsp crushed ginger and garlic (alternatively you can use ready made ginger garlic paste)
• 4 cups methi (washed and finely chopped)
• Salt to taste
• 4 tsp Oil
• Ghee (clarified butter) for flavor (optional)

How to Make:

1. Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned under Garam masala in low heat (for about 5 minutes). Let it cool down. Once cooled, grind them into fine powder.
2. Drain water from the rice and let it stand on a perforated vessel.
3. At the same time, keep 4 cups of water to boil. (Alternately you can boil the water in a kettle)
4. In a wok or kadhai, add 2 tsp oil. Once hot, add 2 bay leaves and 1 tsp cumin seeds. 
5. Once cumin seeds crackle, add the rice and saute it well for 2-3 minutes.At this stage the water in the rice is all absorbed.At this stage, add a tsp of Ghee (clarified butter) if required. 
6. Now add 4 cups of boiling water and salt. Mix well and cover the wok with a lid. Cook on low heat. The rice should be cooked in approx. 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the rice cool down a bit.
7. While the rice is cooking, in another non stick pan, heat 2 tsp oil.
8. Once hot, add ginger garlic paste and onion. Saute well till onion is clear.Add totmato and cook well till tomato is mushy and oil leaves the side of the side of the pan.
9. At this stage add chopped methi and mix well. Cook with lid covered for about 7-10 minutes so that methi is cooked properly. Add Salt at this stage as it would be difficult to mix salt once rice is added.
10. Once methi is cooked, add the ground Garam masala little by little ( as per the spice taste you desire) and let this cook for 5 minutes and then turn off the heat.
11. Let this mixture stand for 5 minutes and then add this methi mixture to the cooked Basmati rice. Mix well and cook the Pulao n low heat (wok covered with lid) for 10 minutes.

Garnish with chopped corriander and delicious Methi pulao is ready to serve. This goes well with Dal Makhani and Cucumber and Mint Raita.

Tip: You can also add fried cashew nuts on the top just before serving.