Beef Nihari 🍲

Name: Beef Nihari
Prep time: 216 min
Cook time: 324 min
Total time: 540 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Pakistani
Ingredients: 1 kg beef shank, cross-cut with bones; 100 g beef bones or trotter pieces (for gelatin); 50 g ghee plus 2 tbsp oil; 2 onions, thinly sliced; 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste; 2 tbsp nihari masala (fennel, caraway, dried red chilli, clove, cardamom, mace, star anise, stone flower, ground fine); 1 tbsp red chilli powder, 1 tsp turmeric; 50 g whole wheat flour (atta) slurry; water or stock ~1.5 L; to serve: ginger julienne, green chilli rings, lemon wedges, naan

Delhi and Lahore's slow-breakfast monarch: beef shank with its marrow bone simmered eight hours with nihari masala until the collagen gives out, finished with a flour-slurry sheen and demolished with naan, ginger julienne and lemon before the city wakes.

Punjab Pakistani ⏱ 540 min Hard

Method

1

Ghee-fry the sliced onions deep brown; lift them out. Add ginger-garlic paste to the pot, then brown the shank pieces hard on all sides.
2

Return the browned onions; add nihari masala, chilli and turmeric, stir 2 minutes until fragrant.
3

Cover with water/stock, bring to a bare simmer and cook, lid ajar, 6-8 hours, topping up liquid so it never runs dry; the meat should eventually slide off the bone.
4

Whisk the atta with cold water to a smooth slurry; stir in gradually to give the gravy a glossy, clingy body. Simmer 15 more minutes.
5

Beat the top layer of oil/ghee into the gravy. Serve in deep bowls with ginger, chilli rings and lemon; naan is mandatory, and the marrow spooned straight from the bone is the prize.

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Beef Nihari 🍲

Method

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