Dal Makhani is one of the cornerstones of Punjabi cuisine and is quite a popular but heavy dish. It goes down fantastically well with some soft butter kulchas (best at Masala Kraft,Taj) and some Kingfisher on the side.It is a simple dish with a ordinary ingredients but a true dal makhani like other well made Punjabi dishes has to be simmered for up to 8 hours to get it right
When you taste a well made Dal makhani you bite into the taste of the dal accented by the taste and smell of gobs of butter which goes right to your brain. Best places for Dal Makhani - Moti Mahal at Cr2 / Dum Pukth at ITC Grand Maratha / Masala Kraft at the Taj.
Dal Bukhara is an elusive cousin of the Dal Makhani. Bukhara is a town in modern day Uzbekista, not sure how well the two are connected. I would reckon that the Bukhara dal is a North West Frontier province dish and somehow traveled to India via the silk route.
However it is pretty rare to find Dal Bukhara on the menu in the myriad restaurants around the city. Usual preference for dal has been Dal Makhani, even in the upper end restaurants. So the chances of you having a well made Dal Bukhara is just slightly less than finding a regular Dal Bukhara for a meal.
It is sort of the like the Dal Makhani but complicated by the use of a red tomato gravy as the base for the cooking and the taste of butter not being essential to its experience. The tomato adds a tang in the daal and gives it a taste and look (reddish, brownish) different from the black Dal Makhani.
The best example i have had has been at the Royal Challenge restaurant in Goregaon W on the way to Film City.
One of the worlds best restaurants (ranked 37th) The Bukhara at the ITC, Delhi also does a version, apparently simmered for 24 hours on a slow flame. I have a trip to Delhi planned later this year, which is pretty much built around sampling the cuisine of this restaurant, chiefly the dal bukhara.
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