Five Star Hotel Style Dal Makhani Recipe

Five Star Hotel Style 
Dal Makhani Recipe

Here is the recipe of the five-star restaurant style Dal Makhani. I worked hard on dal makhani recipe and tried so many times finally I got the delicious one. Believe me, it’s very rich and creamy in texture. 

Serves 4

Ingredients

240 gm black gram, whole (urad dal)

80 gm kidney beans (rajma)

100 ml milk

200 ml tomato puree

160 gm butter

80 ml Cream

1 tsp red chili

1 tsp garam masala

2 – 3 pinch nutmeg powder

½ tbsp ginger paste

½ tbsp garlic paste

1 tsp fenugreek leaves

1 small piece of charcoal

1 tsp clarified butter

Salt

Masala Potli -

1 big cardamom

2 bay leaves

1-inch cinnamon stick

1-star anise

Method

Pick and clean the black gram and kidney beans. Add salt and rub the mixture with both hands and then rinse with water. Soak the mixture in water overnight.

Add 5 cup of water to the dal with spices potli (make a bundle of spices and tie with the cheesecloth with the help of string) and cook over a low flame till grain splits. Remove spices potli, add milk and cook till the milk is absorbed completely.

It is traditionally cooked over charcoal embers for 6 hours or overnight with 9 cups of water.

Add the tomato puree, ginger and garlic paste, salt and chili powder, butter and cook for an hour till dal is thick.

And last add cream, crushed kasuri methi, nutmeg powder and garam masala stir it very well, and then switch off the flame.

Heat a small piece of charcoal on flame till it becomes hot with the help of tongs.

Keep the hot charcoal in a small bowl. Pour 1 teaspoon clarified butter on the charcoal. Immediately keep this bowl on top of the dal makhani. Cover for 2 minutes.

Garnish with cream and serve with naan. 

Hidden Facts About Dal Makhani

I believe everyone loves Dal Makhani. It is soul food for many. The dish was introduced to new locales by entrepreneurial Punjabi migrants like Kundan Lal Gujaral who opened the moti mahal restaurant in Darya ganj, Delhi, India.

 Dal makhani was first created by Sardar Singh. This was the specialty of Punjabis in Peshawar. When the Peshawaris came over after the Partition, they brought this dal with them. As many Peshawari Punjabis became restaurateurs, this was the dal they put on their menus. 

The secret to make  dal makhani without having to add too much butter is the number of hours you cook the lentils. Traditionally, the dals are simmered overnight in Tandoor enhancing the taste of the  dal. Some chef says it is only 50 per cent urad dal. The other 50 per cent is equally divided between rajma and chana dal.

Monish gujral (food writer) says it was even simpler. All Kundan Lal did was to take the black dal of his ancestors and to add his  makhani  sauce to it. After butter chicken came, his next invention was butter dal. Think about it: chicken makhani, dal makhani!  Obviously  the dishes were meant to be regarded as members of the same family.

Manjit zgill ITC’s corporate chef conceded that the modern dal makhani was invented by Moti Mahal.

For a start, the Moti Mahal recipe (as published in Monish’s Moti Mahal’s Tandoori Trail) is a mixture of dals. It is only 50 per cent urad dal. The other 50 per cent is equally divided between rajma and chana dal.

 Any chef will tell you that water is the key to good dal. But water varies from city to city and frequently, urban water is either over-chlorinated or, if you use your own filters, can taste slightly odd. ITC uses mineral water to standardize the taste of its Dal Bukhara at all its hotels.

                                                                                                            Dal Makhani Recipe