Authentic Punjabi Rajma

Punjabi Rajma or kidney beans is a famous dish in a punjabi household. It is loved by almost every one. It's a dish wherein the soaked and boiled kidney beans are cooked in onion and tomato gravy combined with the spicy masala.
There are different varieties of kidney beans that you get in the market. My personal favourite is the pink kidney beans which gives my rajma, a very authentic taste.

So what all ingredients do we need..

• Kidney beans of your choice, soaked overnight in water. 
• 2 onions.
• 2 tomato.
• Green chillies.
• Ginger garlic paste.
• Spices - cinnamon, bay leaf, green cardamom, star anise (optional) and few cloves.
• Other spices- cumin seeds, red chilli powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, Rajma masala and salt to taste.
• Some oil for cooking.

Lets get started!!

Step 1.

• Rajma or kidney beans, needs to be soaked in water for overnight. (Or minimum 4 hours.)
• After we have soaked the same, we need to boil it adding some salt.
• Boil in pressure cooker over medium flame for 15 minutes. Different kidney beans take different time for cooking. Be very careful so as to not overcook them. 
• Later, we separate the kidney beans and it's water in 2 different pots. We would be cooking Rajma, using this water.
• Set aside.

Step 2.

• Finely chop the onions and green chillies. Puree the tomatoes. 
• Grind the cinnamon, green cardamom, star anise and cloves. For less spicy, use very little of these ground spices.

Step 3 -Tempering.

• In a pan, put some oil and add cumin seeds, green chillies and the bay leaf. Add in half teaspoon of the ground spices.
• After a minute put in the finely chopped onions and ginger garlic paste. Cook till onions turn golden brown.
• Add the tomato puree, and other spices- red chilli powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, Rajma masala and little salt as we have already added some salt while boiling kidney beans.
• We need to cook this spicy onion tomato gravy, covered with a lid, for 15 to 20 minutes over slow to medium flame. Keep checking in between so that it doesn't burn. If you see the gravy dries out we add some rajma water in between. 

(TIP 1- The longer we cook the tempering, the better would be the taste of dishes specially when you are cooking - Chole, Rajma or Dal Makhani. Do not leave the onions or tomatoes undercooked.)

Step 4-

• After 20 minutes we add this onion tomato gravy to our kidney beans. Mix well.
• Next we add in the rajma water that we had separated earlier.
• Allow this to simmer for some time, peferably 7 to 10 minutes on low flame. 

If your rajma was undercooked before and is little hard, we could pressure cook at the end for a couple of whistles since we need soft Rajma.

(TIP 2- Keep the cooked rajma aside for minimum 2 hours. The longer you keep it, the better it's taste. I normally cook Rajma by 10 am to have it at 1pm :) This also applies for Chole and Dal Makhani.)

Garnish with some cilantro leaves and enjoy this punjabi Rajma with Naan or Basmati rice.