Black daal

Be careful: for this recipe at least 12 hours of planning ahead are needed.

Ingredients for 8 hungry people  

• 300g black daal (or lentils)
• 20g garlic (4 or 5 cloves)
• 20g ginger (peeled)
• 200g tomato sauce
• 5g deggi mirch chili powder
• 12g garam masala
• 90g butter
• 100g cream
• 5g + 8g salt

Procedure

1. Soak the daal in cold water overnight, with 5g of salt;
2. Cook the daal in 3l of cold water for 2 to 3 hours, until the grains are creamy soft, while skimming any scum coming to the surface;
3. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes, then drain the lentils;
4. In a mortar smash the garlic, peeled ginger, the spices, and salt;
5. In the same pot, add the butter and lentils, briefly stir fry, then add the spice mix and the tomato sauce, then finally 1.4l of boiling water;
6. Cook for 2h until the daal is creamy;
7. Add the cream and serve warm.

Be careful: as the lead chef from Dishoom states: “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”.

Tip: this recipe is great to match with naan bread (see ) or roti.