Vegetable Kurma

Ingredients:
50 gms French beans- Remove strings and cut into half inch pieces. 
50 gms carrot- cubed 
50 gms potato- peeled and cubed 
50 gms shelled peas 
50 gms turnip or knol khol- peeled and cubed 

Pressure cook the vegetables with minimum water and required salt and keep aside. 

Grind together: 
3 medium onion peeled and chopped
3 green chillies 
1″ piece of ginger- peeled and chopped 
A fist full each of mint leaves and coriander leaves- washed and chopped 
4-5 garlic pods- peeled 
1 tsp garam masala (alternately, you can use 2 each of cardamom, cloves and cinnamon) 
1 tsp aniseed 
salt for the masala 

Soak and grind separately: 
6-7 whole cashews 
2 tsps poppy seeds (khus khus) 

Blanch in hot water, peel and grind: 2 medium tomatoes. 

Heat oil in a pan, add the ground masala and fry till oil oozes out, add the vegetables, ground tomatoes and boil for some time. Finally add the cashew/khus khus paste, blend well and remove from fire. Adjust salt if required.

Dal Makhani

Ingredients:
Whole urad- 125 ml- soak overnight in 500 ml water 
Fresh Curd- 80 ml 
Green chillies- chopped- 1 tsp 
Ginger- chopped- 1 tsp 
salt 1/2 tsp 

Method:
Wash, drain the urad, add 250 ml water and cook in the pressure cooker till soft with curd, chillies, ginger and salt as above. 

Onion-1 medium 
Tomato-2 medium 
Boil both till soft and puree. 

Oil- 2-3 tsp 
Jeera- 1 tsp
Peppercorns- 2 
cardamom-2 
cinnamon- 1″ piece 
green chilli- 1 
chopped ginger- 1″ piece 

Heat oil in a pan, add jeera, allow to crackle, add all the above items one by one and fry well. Then add tomato-onion paste and fry well. Add the pressure cooked urad and the following spices/ condiments: 

1 tsp each of red chilli powder, chaat masala, coriander powder, mango powder, sugar and salt. 

Then add tomato puree ( 1 tomato), 1/2 cup milk, one cup water and mix well. Simmer on low fire. You can add a drop of red food colour (optional). Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, green chilli and ginger juliennes, garam masala powder, butter and/or cream.