The Indian Bean Dish Better Than Chana Masala.

Chana masala is arguably India's greatest bean dish but for me if there's one dish that's even better it's rajma. Like chana masala it's got these big bold spice flavors but the texture is even better. It's velvety, kind of melts in your mouth and I like to think of it as India's answer to chili. So today I'm going to show you how to make my version and then we're going to do a taste test with my very picky Indian parents to see if it gets their seal of approval. I've got some kidney beans that I soaked overnight in plenty of water and a fair amount of salt to season the beans and we'll get started by adding them to a large saucepan with some water but not too much water because we want the bean broth to be really concentrated and flavorful. A teaspoon of oil helps prevent the beans from getting too foamy and a little baking soda is going to help them soften faster though it is optional. It is important to cook the kidney beans at a boil for the first 10 minutes. I'm going to pop a lid on partially just so we don't evaporate too much liquid as these boil. At this point we can reduce the heat to just a gentle simmer and we'll add in a couple seasonings, a whole cinnamon stick, two Indian bay leaves, these are known as tej pata, and a little more salt. I'm going to let these simmer on my main stove so we can work on the next component of the dish which is the masala. We'll start our masala with a large yellow onion which I'm just dicing finely so it kind of melts into the dish. I've also got two serrano peppers for some heat but I don't want things to be overwhelmingly spicy so instead of finely chopping my serrano peppers I'm just going to cut a small slit in them and that's going to gently infuse the dish with some heat but not overpower it. We'll also smash down on six garlic cloves just to remove the peels and peel an inch of fresh ginger and that's all the chopping we need to do for now because we'll have time to further prep these while the onions cook. Get a large saute pan going over medium heat for a few minutes and add three tablespoons of oil. We'll start with a few whole spices we already used, a whole cinnamon stick and two Indian bay leaves and an optional ingredient that I love, black cardamom. It adds a smoky savory depth of flavor it's often used in Punjabi versions of rajma masala. You want to just crack it open very lightly with your fingers and then you can add all the spices to the saute pan. Once these smell really amazing, maybe 45 seconds, you can go in with our last whole spice, two teaspoons of cumin seeds, these need 10 seconds don't let them burn, and then our onions and serrano peppers. You might notice that this does not look like a standard saute pan or sauce pan that's because it's a saucier. It's the five-quart saucier pan from Made In, the sponsor of today's video. Unlike a standard sauce pan, it doesn't have those hard corners around the edges so it's really easy to stir food. Nothing gets caught on the edges or stuck and of course you can cook pretty much anything in here like sauteing vegetables but it really shines when you're making something saucy like a rajma, like a curry. It's also really good for pasta and tossing pasta with sauce and like all of Made In's stainless steel pans, you're gonna get all the good features, the five-ply layers for even heating, the handle stays cooler than other stainless steel pans because it's actually hollow inside and there's no weird metals or chemicals leaching from the pan into your food. Basically it's just super professional quality cookware designed for home cooks like myself and you. Made In's pans are used in multiple three michelin star restaurants so if they're going to hold up in those kitchens I know they're going to do perfectly in mine. You can check out all of my favorite pans and the stainless steel collection from Made In by using this QR code or you can check the link in the description box below. One of the keys to a really flavorful masala is to let the onions brown. It does take longer than letting them sweat for a few minutes but over medium heat these don't need to be stirred that often so we can use that time to multitask. We're going to finish prepping our garlic and ginger as well as our tomatoes. Instead of chopping everything really finely I'm just going to stick it in our little mini food processor and within seconds it'll turn into a coarse paste. And within seconds we have this beautiful tomato puree which is so much easier and faster than finely chopping tomatoes by hand. If at any point you notice the onions are browning a little unevenly just add a splash of water. When the onions are looking beautifully brown like this you can add in the garlic and ginger plus two tablespoons of tomato paste which is going to add even more savory sweetness. This is already such a flavor bomb. We've got browned onions, we've got garlic, ginger, serrano peppers, whole spices, tomato paste and it's only going to get better from here. Add in the pureed tomatoes and make sure to scrape up any bits of food that might be stuck to the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper and let this simmer for 10 minutes or so. Everything is looking super jammy and beautiful so now I've got a blend of ground spices, a generous amount of coriander, some Kashmiri chili powder which is a mild red Indian chili powder, a little bit of cumin and some turmeric and a few shakes of asafoetida. If you have it you could skip it if you don't. Just gonna punch up the flavors give it a little bit of an umami kick and a splash of water so nothing burns. All right we can take this off the heat and now let's go check on our kidney beans. For rajma you want the texture of the beans to be soft enough that you can easily mush it together with your fingers but not so soft that it's like completely falling apart or mushy but definitely softer than if you were like making this for a salad. Just the perfect size. As you can see our cooking liquid is quite thick that's from all of the starches in the beans that were released as they cooked. We're going to set this aside for now we're definitely going to use it again though because it's going to thicken up our rajma and give it so much good texture. Beans go into the masala, colander does not. The reason I separated the liquid and the beans in the first place is because I just want to make sure the beans can get coated in all of the flavors of the masala just for a minute or so before we add the liquid. Look at that starch. Oh baby. We need a little bit more liquid so I'm just going to top it off with some fresh water. Bring this to a boil and the nice thing about this saucier pan is that it's deep enough to fit all of this one pound of cooked beans all the liquid all the masala but if you're using a more traditional sauté pan you'll want to combine everything in your larger pan like your saucepan or dutch oven that you use to cook the beans. Once this is at a boil you can reduce the heat and simmer it covered for 20 minutes stirring a couple times throughout if you can. This needs to cook for a final 10 minutes uncovered this time so that we can concentrate some of that liquid get a really nice velvety saucy texture but I am going to do that on our main stove so that I can make some space and work on our final optional component which is the tadka. Tadka is a tempered spiced oil that typically features spices sometimes aromatics and it's going to take our rajma masala from good to phenomenal. For the garlic and ginger you want to slice them thinly and then cut them into matchsticks and a few spices kasuri methi which are dried fenugreek leaves. You want to just crush these between your fingers to release the aroma a bit of garam masala which is a classic finishing spice and a little more kashmiri chili powder which adds this beautiful color. Let's get this off the stove you can see it's got a nice velvety texture look at that go ahead and pick out the cinnamon stick and the serrano pepper bay leaves a little lemon juice which will give everything a nice bright finish some chopped cilantro so pretty okay back to the tadka grab your smallest saucepan or fry pan add a bit of oil and once it's hot you can add in the garlic and ginger and you want to stir frequently for a minute or two until they start to soften the edges on the ginger should start to curl up a bit that's when you know it's time to add the spices and you want to keep stirring constantly for 20 to 30 seconds and then immediately pour the tadka on top of the rajma it smells so good rajma is typically served with rice but you could also do some flatbread and I like to add a little bit of coconut yogurt for that tangy cooling finish it's velvety creamy kind of melts in your mouth but the real test is what do my very picky parents think so let's head over there and do a can I open it too can I open it too so I mean you think he's hot no no no no hi everyone welcome to our taste test if you haven't met my parents these are my parents I'm Deepak she's Nisha that's Neela and we're holding do you make rajma at home very rarely not all the time I love rajma so much do you make it at home I have made a couple times but I you make it in the either the slow cooker or instant pot anyways please try I just made a small bowl for you but you can have more later this is a restaurant style taste very good I would put a little more heat do your Punjabi friends make rajma yeah and they make it very nice does this taste anything like theirs not very much hello darkness my old friend okay it's different style they theirs is also very good but Nisha's is always best it is a little bit of creamy yeah I like it creamier but you can add more water if you like it liquidy okay well next time I come over you can make me rajma okay I got one more on my list on my menu to make for my baby number one chef in the vegan cooking I believe me okay believe me not because she's my daughter but are you just listing Indian foods the ones with which you like oh okay it's wonderful even if I was not hungry anything you can make this recipe yourself the full recipe is linked in the description box below thank you to my parents for joining me and we'll see you in the next video bye number one chef say bye bye number one chef