Alu Tamatar – Special

This is a simple way to cook potatoes and tomatoes together, albeit it looks fancier. For once this recipe does not use garlic and ginger. I like to use Sanjeev Kapoor’s Punjabi mango pickle. I have used other brands, but this brand works really well with vegetables and adds the perfect flavor to the tomato gravy. This is a fairly quick recipe and serves as an excellent side dish for last minute guests.

Take 6- 8 baby potatoes and microwave them for 5 minutes. Slice in half. Now take some oil in a pan and add the potatoes, till you get a crust on both sides. Prick the potatoes with a fork and set aside.

Dice 3 tomatoes finely. In a pan take some oil. When the oil is hot enough, add heeng and zeera. Now add the tomatoes. Keep cooking till tomatoes are pulpy. Add haldi, salt, red chilly powder, coriander. Add the potatoes.

Cook for another 5 minutes. Add garam masala, kasoori methi. Add a tbspn Punjabi mango pickle.

Daal Makhani

I must admit, it took me a while to making this daal. I was always intimidated by the copious amounts of butter the recipe required. After improvising, substituting and experimenting, I concluded that there was no substitute to the butter. Either swallow the bullet and make the daal the way it should be, or just make a tepid version but then don’t call it daal makhani. I do however try to get maximum bang for my buck by adding the butter at the very end. This requires less butter than actually using it when you cook the ginger, garlic and tomatoes.
The quantity of tomatoes makes all the difference. This recipe calls for five tomatoes and the result is a creamy tangy reddish daal. However, you can get a meatier taste if you ease on tomatoes but that would be a different daal all together.


1 cup black whole urad
1/3 cup rajma
1/3 cup black chana

Soak the above dals overnight. In a pressure cook, steam for 1-2 whistles with salt and water.

Blend the following together

5 tomatoes
5 fat cloves of garlic
1 “piece of ginger
Two green chillies

Take some oil in a wok. When it is hot add cumin seeds. After they splutter add the tomato paste and reduce it till it is pulpy and thick. Should take 15- 20 mins. After around 10 minutes, add red chilly powder, turmeric, and coriander powder.

Now add the daal.

Cook for another 10 minutes, adjusting for water and salt. Add ½ cup of cream and garam masala. Stir and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add ½ stick of butter and 2 tbspn kasoori methi.
Garnish with coriander
If you are serving the next day , you could take some butter in a pan and melt it. Add a pinch of red chilly powder. When the powder sizzles, pour over the daal.

Chane ki kadi

Pressure cook some black chana daal with salt. Drain out the excess water and mash coarsely.

In a container, take some yoghurt. Add some besan, dhania powder, salt, green chillies, garam masala, salt, red chilly powder.

In a pan take some ghee. Add some rai and zeera. Add the yogurt mixture and the chana. Cokk till besan loses the raw taste. Garnish with dhania.

Panchmel Daal

This is a daal more common to Rajasthan and goes well with baati. I still have to get my baati, or baked wheat dense bread right, but the daal turned out fine. The fried aamchoor or dried mango powder gives the daal, its tangy taste and golden color. I use equal portions of the split daals. I use my pressure cooker and boil these daals till the pressure cooker whistles once, and then I let the daals steam in the cooker for awhile. This is the perfect texture for me, since the daal is cooked and not mushy yet.

Take all the split daals in the pantry. I used arhar, chana, urad, mooong, masoor. Pressure cook with salt till you hear a whistle.

In a small pan take some oil. Add one bay leaf and zeera,and saute the spices till they splutter. Now add red chilli powder, coriander powder, and some aamchoor to the oil. Sauté a bit and add to the daal. Add some garam masala and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve with Baati.