Name: Dal Makhani
Ingredients: 1 cup [200 g] whole urad beans with skin; ½ cup [60 g] kidney beans (optional); / tsp baking soda; 1 medium white onion; (9% oz [260 g]); 6 garlic cloves, peeled; 2 in [5 cm) piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut in half; ¼ cup [55 g] ghee or unsalted butter; 1 tsp garam masala, homemade or store-bought; ½ tsp ground turmeric; ¼ cup (55 g] tomato paste; ¼ tsp cayenne powder; Fine sea salt; 2 Tbsp heavy cream or crème fraîche; 2 Tbsp loosely packed chopped cilantro leaves, for garnish (optional)

Ingredients

A small, shallow metal bowl or a medium onion, hollowed out in the center

1 to 2 in [2.5 to 5cm] piece charcoal

1 Tbsp ghee

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Instructions

Place the metal bowl or onion in the center of the dal. Using a pair of tongs, burn the charcoal over a flame until it turns red hot. Carefully place the live charcoal in the center of the bowl and drop the ghee on the hot charcoal. It will start to smoke.
Cover the saucepan with a lid to trap the smoke and let it sit for 5 minutes. Remove the lid, the wire rack (if using), and the bowl or onion and safely discard the charcoal. Proceed with the fried ginger in the recipe.

Notes

Some folks also swap the metal bowl and use a hollowed out onion filled with the ghee and burning charcoal to smoke the dal.

Author: Recipe excerpted from The Flavor Equation by Nik Sharma (Chronicle Books, 2020). Reprinted with permission.

The Dhungar Method

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Order your copy of the best-selling James Beard nominated cookbook, The Flavor Equation.