This recipe was taken from Dishoom. I first discovered Dishoom when Rick Stein visited the original restaurant on his tv series – Rick Steins India. I have to be honest I didn’t really pay them much attention. Last year for my birthday I was gifted the Dishoom cook book. It’s not like any cook book I have in my collection. It’s more like a story / history book with a number of recipes, it’s superbly written.

I thought I’d have ago at the ‘House Black Dhal’ recipe. I wanted to push myself to see if I had the patience for this dish. This dish isn’t complicated by any means it just takes four plus hours to cook. I took the challenge as I wanted to keep myself busy but I can’t confidently say having made it I will leave it to the restaurant going forward as they clearly have the time to do this with the kitchen being open all day.

I’ve proven to myself I can make restaurant quality food. That’s not being big headed at all as I’m not that kind of person. I’ve pushed myself, made it, move on.

Firstly, take your urad lentils, place them in a bowl then cover with cold water, whisk. Empty the water out and repeat until the water runs clear.

Place the lentils and a deep pan and cover with 4 litres of water. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 1 1/2 – 2 hours until the lentils can be gently pushed through their outer cases.

After 2 hours, remove from the heat, allow to cool.

Replace the water and cover the lentils with about 4cm above the lentils of fresh water. Make your paste by mixing 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 1/2 tsp of garam masala, 80g of tomato purée, 1 tsp of fine table salt, 1/2 tsp of garlic paste & 1/2 tsp of ginger paste. Add this mix to the pan.

Stir in the mix, bring to a simmer and simmer for 2 hours. If you need to top up the water use boiling water from the kettle.

15 minutes before serving add 90ml of double cream and stir in well. I served this up with another dish I’d spent a couple of hours doing to the different stages, chicken dopiaza.