Hello, this is a great site! I have made Mamta's Dal Makhani and it was quite good.

I used to travel to the far east for business and have stayed at Maurya Sheraton in New Dehli quite a bit, also the Sheraton in Hong Kong.

There was a resturant called Bhukhara at both theses locations and the Dal was a Killer! Like eating butter. I have searched the internet to no avail for this recipe. Do you all have any idea's? I must have eaten there a dozen times and do miss it.

Thanks

harry

What kind of dal dish was this? There are quite a few.

Tarka dal?

Phil

Hello Harry

Dal Makhani is a very popular dal in North India and almost each family has their own recipe. It contains whole urad/urid (black gram) and Rajma (kidney beans). In Delhi, there are many, many superb restaurants, famous for their North India and Moghul cuisine, including Dal Makhani. Bukhara is a well known, though expensive restaurant. Dum Pukht is another good one. The oldest (and not so expensive) one is Moti Mahal, which has many branches all over Delhi. It is famous for it’s butter chicken, dal makhani and tandoori naans. They all guard their recipes though.

I have two recipes on this site, one a family recipe, the other from a road side ‘dhaba’, a fast food restaurant. Both are good. Dhabas cook their dal overnight, slowly, and give it a fresh ‘tarka’ when you order it. See Dal Makhani 1 and Dal Makhani 2.

Traditionally this dal was cooked slowly, for hours, on charcoal. This gave it a creamier texture. You can make it in slow cooker but make sure that you boil it briskly in a pan for last 10 minutes, to neutralise the toxins in Kidney beans/Rajma.

In old days, in a traditional Punjabi house, it had a lot of ‘malai’ (thick skin that forms on top of boiled full cream milk)) or fresh butter added to it. These days, people are more health conscious and use less of butter/malai. In a good restaurant, they probably still cook it slowly on low heat. They also add same large amount of cream and butter, hence the name and the extra ‘buttery’ taste.

Mamta

Thank You for the information!

have tried out the dal makhani listed here myself and it turns out to be quite good , actually excellent shud be the word, everytime without fail. cheers to you mamta!!!