My husband's Oriental Dr. recommended this to him for a protein boost in his diet. I made it today and the house smelled so good. The spices are very aromatic and are a must in this delicious recipe. I didn't use Ghee but Earth Balance vegan margarine instead because I don't eat dairy products as a rule. It has no trans fats like other margarine. It worked fine. I also used Jasmine rice instead of the basmati because that's what I had. I also used ground Cardamom as I didn't have the pods, I put in about 1/2 tsp. It is very strong, so if you want use 1/4 tsp. All my spices were ground in this recipe. I used non-chicken stock in this to keep it vegetarian. I soaked my rice and dahl together instead of separately for a few hours. The longer you leave it, the softer it gets and I believe it cuts down the cooking time. Keep an eye on this once you start to boil it in the pot. Note, I didn't include the soak time for the rice and dahl in this recipe.