Makhani Dhal

Makhani Dhal

Why this one?
Ever since a holiday to Sri Lanka where I tried dhal for the first time I was hooked. Unsurprisingly the dhal in Sir Lanka was the best I've ever had. My husband and I have spent a long time trying to make one that comes up to Sri Lankan dhal levels. So far we've had some good ones but nothing quite as good. So when I saw this recipe in SLOW I knew I had to mak
 e it. The recipe involves making a base sauce which you then use to make a dhal, paneer curry or a butter chicken - another of my favourites. 

Find the recipe here...https://thehomepage.co.uk/gizzi-erskines-makhani-proper-butter-masala/
This is the recipe for the base sauce and the paneer curry. For the Dhal I cooked some black lentils and then added them to the sauce and finished it off with butter and cream as per the paneer curry.

Any substitutes? A few but nothing too drastic...
No ghee - used rapeseed oil instead
No chili powder - used flakes instead
No fenugreek seeds - used ground fenugreek

The actual cooking of the dish

This recipe called for 4 onions to be cut up, by the end of that I was weeping - literal tears rolling down my face, to be honest that was the most exciting thing about cooking this dish. Luckily it was a simple dish to cook as I had my tiny 'helper' scampering around my feet most of the time. Anyway, the onions needed to be slow cooked. I used the cooking technique from the pork stroganoff with hot dog onions recipe which is now a staple of my cooking repertoire. Slow cooked onions without any burning - winner.

The recipe was very easy to follow - everything added to the pot and cooked slowly. It then required blitzing to make the sauce smooth and thick. It said to blitz for at least a minute, I did about 3 and it wasn't super smooth but looked good to me. 

A great thing about this was that the sauce base could be cooked at any point and then frozen or used later in the day.

Then I cooked the lentils and then added them to the sauce and cooked together for another 30 minutes. Adding butter and cream at the end of the cooking was a sure fire way to get me salivating before the dish was even on my plate.


What I thought
I'm gonna say it but I think it is up there with the Sri Lankan dhal, the flavour was so deep you felt warmth but without the awful overpowering heat you can sometimes get with a curry, normally from too much chili powder.

The cream left a silky smooth texture after each mouthful, the lentils adding a soft bite which was just perfect. To quote my husband, and his favourite adjective  for describing food, the dish was warming, he's totally right. It was warming and comforting in the way the only a lentil dish can be - honest and frugal but a vessel for flavour. 

I really loved this dish and just wanted it to go on and on. Luckily I made four portions and it was just as good re-heated with a flatbread on the side for lunch the next day.  The sauce base was so easy and tasty that I can see it becoming a staple for us. Definitely one to repeat. 

Difficulty: Easy

Tastiness rating: 9/10

Next time I'd....do nothing different. But I am excited to use the sauce to make butter chicken.