Pakistani cuisine

Cafe Society
1

I had never had it until recently, but there’s a place nearby and I get takeout there regularly. My two favorite dishes – haleem (spicy, hearty stew of slow cooked beef and grains that blends together, very flavorful) and nehari (spicy beef stew cooked with marrow, also very flavorful). They also have great, soft flat bread (naan).

They also have paya (I haven’t tried it yet), but they say it’s rarely available because of low demand, and chicken/lamb/goat karahi (also haven’t tried it), which requires an hour to prepare.

Any other thoughts/experiences with Pakistani cuisine?

2

It’s mostly the same as North Indian cuisine (my parents are Pakistani so I can say this ;)), so if you see North Indian, they’ll have similar stuff. Nihari is my favorite subcontinental dish and Haleem is very tasty as well. Biryani is also quite fantastic.

3

A Pakistani I used to work with recommended the many North Indian restaurants in Houston as pretty close to Pakistani. At the time, there was one Pakistani-run restaurant in town, but he didn’t much care for it because it served no alcohol. (As his wife side-eyed the beer in his hand, at our yearly Holiday party.)

4

You’re not going to see a lot of beef dishes in North Indian cuisine…

Me, I like the Kashmiri subset of Pakistani cuisine best - nothing like a full wazwam! *Rogan josh *being my favourite single dish - properly made, without tomatoes and not a lot of heat.

5

Since the Mrs. is from Karachi and Lahore, and I’ve gained 40 pounds since we married, I feel especially qualified.

Chicken 65: red-colored chunks of fried chicken; it can be eaten with rice or naan, although sometimes I’ll wrap mine in a tortilla (we’re all about fusion in my house)

6

Oh man, Chicken 65 is one of my favorites! Is that Pakistani?

I like Pakistani style kebabs of all sorts, especially seekh kebab.

7

By the way…do you have a recipe you could share? Pretty please. :slight_smile: It doesn’t have to be anything super precise–I’m experienced enough of a cook that I can figure things out as long as I have a rough idea.

8

About 3 years ago we had a food cook-off at work; I brought the Mrs’ nihari plus some packaged frozen tandoori naan, thinking a few people who like spicy food might enjoy it, but figuring most people would think it was “weird”.

It won “best in flavor”!

Another item, a snack/side dish, that every single American seems to love is Samosa. Now, for convenience (though it doesn’t seem convenient to me), the Mrs uses egg roll wrappers, and while not traditional that might be part of the draw; the outside is nice and crispy, and not as “doughy” as a traditional one might be.

Pulykamell, I will check on the recipe for you.

9

I was at a Muslim Pakistani wedding two weekends ago, and they had the best samosas I’ve ever had. They were similar to the way you describe them, made with a thinner, almost egg roll wrapper style of dough. I know there is a Pakistani regional variant whose name escapes me that does use a thinner dough and not the usual one you describe. Plus it was filled with the most deliciously spiced beef or lamb and served with a coriander chutney (or similar) unlike one I’ve ever had before. It was an appetizer, but I just ate up a half dozen of them, they were so good prepared that way.

10

Northern Indian, Pakistani, and Afghan foods are very similar. I’ve been to a really good Afghan place in Cambridge MA a few times in the past couple of years. Very good lamb and spinach dishes that I usually go for in these similar cuisines. They provide challow rice instead of biryani with most dishes. I’ve mostly had the Pakistani styles that are similar to the Indian Hyderabad style.

11

Much of what’s being described in this thread falls under Punjabi cuisine, it looks like. Items like rogan josh and samosas were introduced to me as definitive “Indian” cuisine … but I learned later that the subcontinent has several different distinct cuisines mutually influencing each other all the time** – one of which is Punjabi cuisine. And of course, the historical region of (the?) Punjab covers what is today both northern Indian and Pakistani territory.

Questions for those who might know:

  1. Is there a distinct Pakistani cuisine from the coastal cities such as Karachi? Maybe more fresh seafood gets used? I am assuming that the answer here is “of course” – Indian cuisine from coastal regions, such as Goan cuisine, commonly use fish and shellfish.

  2. Is Pakistan, generally, kind of at a culinary crossroads? Have some items from the nearer Middle Eastern countries (such as Iran and Iraq) become popular fare in Pakistan? Or even fully incorporated into a wider “Pakistani cuisine”?
    ** Just looked up “chicken 65” out of curiosity. It seems to be a relatively recent invention, concocted by a restaurant owner in Chennai (on SE Indian coast) about 50 years ago.

12

Where do haleem and nihari fall into the Punjabi/Hyderabadi/North Indian/whatever vs Pakistani cuisines?

13

Haleem apparently is ultimately an incorporation from Middle Eastern cuisine – it’s known as hareesa (sp?) in many Arab-speaking areas. Today, it’s a popular dish from Turkey and Armenia eastward into Pakistan and India.

Nihari’s origins are Northern Indian, but from an area east of the Punjab (both Delhi and Lucknow are touted as the origin of nihari).

14

Muslim style foods seem to be the connection between the three countries and their similar foods. I don’t really about any regional differences in Afganistan, but I’ve been told the there are distinct differences in Pakistani foods by region. The foods are not only similar in style and contents but in the names. I’m sure the Pakistani port cities have distinct styles. Goan food was influenced by the Portuguese, but of course India is a huge place that once was many different distinct kingdoms and there are a lot of varieties and styles there.

15

For pulykamell or any others interested in Chicken 65: the Mrs says she uses a variation of the recipe here:

If you want to start off a bit simpler/easier, you can probably find a Chicken 65 spice mix at your local Indo-Pak grocery; here’s one as an example:

The price seems awfully high; usually spice boxes at our local markets are around $1 each.

One nice thing about Chicken 65 is that you can mix and marinate it and keep in the fridge for a few days, frying only what you need each meal.

16

An unusual and quite splendid dish, attributed as from Pakistan, in a “curries from around the world” cookbook which I have (I’ve made this dish, and greatly liked it): minced lamb and kidney curry.

To serve 4 / 5
6 lambs’ kidneys, sliced

one and a half teaspoons garlic paste

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

4 tablespoons sunflower oil

2 large onions, finely sliced

1 teaspoon ginger paste

4 medium tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground coriander

salt

1lb 2oz coarsely minced lamb

4 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves
To garnish:

green chillies cut into julienne

fresh root ginger cut into julienne
Pour 8 fluid ounces (I’m in the UK – one American cup, I think) water into a small saucepan. Layer the sliced kidneys in the pan, cut side down. Add half a teaspoon of the garlic paste and half a teaspoon of turmeric. Bring to the boil, then drain the kidneys. This helps to remove their strong smell.

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onions and cook until golden brown. Add the remaining garlic paste, the ginger paste and tomatoes and stir well, then add the chilli powder, remaining turmeric, the cumin seeds, ground coriander and salt. Cook, stirring, until the oil separates out.

Add the minced lamb and stir to mix with what’s in the saucepan. Add the kidneys and mix them in. Put a lid on the saucepan and cook for 30 – 35 minutes on a low heat.

Remove the lid and cook for a further 8 – 10 mins. or until excess liquid has evaporated and the oil separates out.

Stir in the chopped coriander. Garnish with green chillies and ginger, and serve.

17

You guys are forcing me to make Chicken 65. Curry leaves are mentioned in several recipes, it’s the only ingredient I’ll have to search for. That looks so good I can’t believe there isn’t a Chicken 65 fast food restaurant chain.

18

It’s South Indian (from Chennai) and a particular restaurant (and the 65 was the year it was developed). but as was said above, foods travel.

Rogan Josh is characteristically Kashmiri, not Punjabi (but ultimately Persian in origin) - although as noted, there’s no border to these things. But when I think “Punjabi food”, I think “tandoor”, like when I think “Kerala”, I think “coconut”

19

That’s what I’ve always thought–I was just wondering if it’s more broadly also associated with Pakistani cuisine. Like is it something I should look for at a Pakistani restaurant on the menu and have a reasonable chance of finding? It’s not one I usually think of as Pakistani. Then again, there’s only a couple Indian places I know of around here that have Chicken 65 on the menu, and it’s often a weekend only dish. I mostly have it because it’s quite common at events I work at in the South Asian community.

20

I put some leftover haleem from the takeout place on corn tortillas this morning with a slice of avocado, and it was amazing. Anyone know of a good and flavorful recipe for haleem that can be done on the stove with ingredients that I should be able to find pretty easily in suburban DC? Google shows me several recipes, but they’re quite different, and I don’t know which one would be tastiest (and pretty easy).