A daal like no other. This isn’t a quick recipe but if you can spare the time you won’t be disappointed.
Ingredients
Serves: 8
300gwhole black urad daal
12ggarlic paste(roughly 4 cloves)
10gginger paste(roughly 1 heaped tablespoon)
70gtomato purée
8gfine sea salt
⅔ tspdeggi mirch chilli powder(or ⅓ tsp normal chilli powder)
⅓ tspgaram masala
90gunsalted butter
90mldouble cream
Method
If possible, soak 300g of urad daal in cold, salted water overnight. If you don’t have time to soak, pour the daal into a large bowl, cover with water and whisk for 10 seconds. Let the daal settle then pour out the water and repeat 3 or 4 times until the water runs clear.
Tip the daal into a large saucepan (I used a 6 litre pan) and pour in at least 4 litres of cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 hours, skimming off any scum that forms on the surface of the water. Keep the grains well covered, topping up with more boiling water as needed.
Once the daal grains are soft, with the skins falling off and the white insides feeling creamy, not crumbly when you pinch a grain between your fingers, turn off the heat and let the pan sit for 15 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix 12g of garlic paste (roughly 4 cloves), 10g of ginger paste (roughly 1 heaped tablespoon), 70g of tomato purée, 8g of fine sea salt, ⅔ teaspoon of chilli powder and ⅓ teaspoon of garam masala into a paste.
Pour away the cooking water from the daal and top up with enough freshly boiled water to cover the daal by around 3-4cm. Bring to a boil then add the paste from the small bowl along with 90g of unsalted butter.
Cook on a medium to high heat for 30 minutes, stirring constantly to make sure that the daal doesn’t stick to the pan.
Turn the heat down low and simmer for 1-1½ hours, stirring as much as you can and adding more boiling water if the water level starts to reach the grains. The daal will eventually thicken and the original recipe advises that, “Creaminess must come from the grains disintegrating into the liquid and enriching it, not from the water being allowed to evaporate leaving only the grains behind”.
When the daal is thick and creamy, add 90ml of double cream and cook for another 15 minutes before transferring to bowls. Serve with naan or chapatis.