Dal makhani vs dal tadka vs dal fry: which dal to actually order

Dal makhani starts with whole black urad, called sabut maa in Punjabi, usually with a small handful of rajma thrown in. The lentils get soaked and then simmered a long time, traditionally overnight on a low flame, until they break down and turn thick almost on their own. That happens before any dairy shows up, which is the part people miss.

Then it's finished with butter and cream. That's where the name comes from, since makhan means butter. What you get is dark and heavy, with a smokiness sitting behind it. This is the dal you order when you want a treat instead of a light meal. It's also entirely vegetarian, which surprises people who assume anything that rich must have meat in it.

Dal tadka usually starts with yellow lentils, most often toor, sometimes with moong or masoor mixed in. The lentils are boiled soft, and then a fresh tadka of cumin, garlic and dried chilli in ghee gets poured over the top just before it's served.

It's lighter and sharper than makhani, and much closer to what people actually cook at home on a Tuesday. This is the dal you eat with rice or roti when you want something that fills you up without sitting on you afterwards.

Dal fry uses roughly the same yellow lentil base as dal tadka. The difference is the masala. Instead of a quick tempering poured on at the end, the cook fries down onion, tomato, ginger and garlic properly first, then folds the boiled dal into all of it.

That extra frying, the bhuna step, is what makes it richer and more restaurant-like. If dal tadka is the home version, dal fry is the one from the roadside dhaba where the masala got more time and considerably more ghee.

Makhani is the easiest of the three to fake and the easiest to catch. The whole dish depends on hours nobody can see, so a kitchen under pressure shortens the simmer and papers over the gap with cream. Here's what that looks like in the bowl:

• The lentils are still separate and slightly firm. In a properly slow-cooked makhani they've started to surrender into the gravy.
• It tastes of cream before it tastes of dal. Cream is the finish, not the flavour. If dairy is the first thing you get, the lentils never had long enough to say anything.
• The colour is pale brown instead of properly dark. That darkness comes from time.
• It goes thin as it cools. A real makhani sets up as it sits, because the body came from broken-down lentils rather than added cream.

Ours simmers for twenty four hours before it meets your roti. That sounds like showing off until you taste the texture, and it's also why it survives the ride to your door instead of splitting on the way.

Want something rich that eats almost like a main on its own? Dal makhani. Want something lighter and more home style next to rice or roti? Dal tadka. Want the middle ground, a yellow dal with a deeper fried masala behind it? Dal fry.

On our own menu the dal we cook is dal makhani, twenty four hours on the stove and a fresh tadka before it's packed. Add a butter tawa roti for the most reliable dinner in Jaipur. If you're ordering it at the end of a long day, I've written about that specific situation too.