Rajma Masala

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When R’s Mom wrote about how her husband RD makes Rajma which is out of this world, I requested her for the recipe. She asked RD and check how he jotted down the recipe in such a neat and orderly manner. When I tried the recipe for the first time, the quality of Rajma I had used were not good. They were adamant to get cooked and hard as stone. Although the gravy turned out lipsmacking good, the Rajma beans wouldn’t disintegrate. I made this again yesterday with better quality of Rajma and we were all bowled over by the taste. I tweaked the recipe only a teeny weeny bit. Here’s RD’s recipe copied and pasted verbatim with the only two changes that I made in parenthesis.

Getting the Rajma Ready
Soak Rajma beans overnight – use lukewarm water (I added a pinch of baking soda to the water)
Cook the beans in a pressure cooker – about 6-7 whistles are required

The Gravy – Ingredients
3 midsized onions – finely chopped
2 midsize tomatoes – minced – or a bowl of tomato puree
2 green chillies
2 cloves of Garlic and little ginger – you can use Ginger garlic paste as well
3 – spoons of curd.
2 spoons of cooking oil
1 small cube of butter
Turmeric – Haldi
Garam Masala / Rajma Masala (I used Everest Chicken Masala powder)
Jeera – Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds – Rai
Jeera Powder – 1.5 spoons
Dhaniya Powder – 1 spoon
Little bit of Hing
Coriander to season

Preparation
Heat the oil in a kadai and add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds. After about 1 min, add the onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies and fry till the onion become soft and brown in color.
After about 5 mins add the minced tomato and fry for about 2 mins.
Then add the haldi, garam masala, salt, hing, jeera powder and dhaniya powder, mix well and continue till you begin to see the oil separating out of the mixture.
Add the curd and mix well and cook for about 2 min
Now add the rajma beans, about 2 cups water (or more depending on your taste) and cook till rajma is soft. This is about 7-8 min.
Mash some of the rajma like you do in pav bhaji.
Add the butter on top.
Garnish with coriander and serve with Rice.