Sheer Maal

Considered a gourmet bread, it doesn’t come as a surprise that it requires a lot of ingredients other than just flour and water. Coming straight from Mughal cuisine, you will find the original recipe demands saffron, cream, milk, cardamoms, rose water and even sugar syrup. It’s tastes similar to a brioche – a cakey, sweet bread; I prefer a slightly dressed down version, with no nuts, saffron or rose water (reminds me too much of desserts!).

It’s good fun to make something different, out of the ordinary, for a dinner party – you’ll hear endless comparisons!

INGREDIENTS

400g plain, sieved flour

Full cream milk powder, 100g

1 egg

1 teaspoon ready to go yeast

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon pure ghee

1-2 cups warm milk

100g sesame seeds

METHOD

1. Add all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix.

2. Mix the wet ingredient together: ghee, egg and warm milk.

3. Start making the dough by adding, a little at a time, the milk and ghee mixture and kneading to bring all the ingredients together.

4. Wet the surface with a little milk (so it doesn’t get dry), cover and leave for 1/2 hour to rise.

5. Knead again for several minutes to make the dough smooth, soft and elastic.

6. Roll it out (if possible without dusting – as this will make it dry) into a 10inch round chappati like shape.

7. IMPORTANT STEP: You must prick tiny holes all over with a fork – otherwise you will end up with a risen loaf! Prick holes in close proximity to ensure the dough does not rise.

8. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle sesame seeds.

9. Bake in a pre-heated oven, 200C degree oven, on a tray for 10-12 minutes.

Serve hot with a little melted butter, if so desired. At Pakistani weddings, it is served with a rich lamb or chicken korma or koftas. It’s not a everyday thing so Sheer Maal only makes rare appearances on special occasions. At home, once in a while, it’s good to offer it as a special treat.

Rumali Roti

Roti is a key part of any Pakistani meal; rice came with the migrations of Muslims after the independence when they brought with them biryanis and pulao. But rice was essentially eaten in parts of India such as Bengal, Gujarat ,  South India where it came through Burma, Laos and Southern China. So roti is still a regular component of any lunch, supper or dinner in Pakistan.

Starting with simple ingredients like flour and water, there are any number of combinations of types of rotis, parathas, naans, luxury breads that can be made. A plain roti, cooked everyday in Pakistani homes, is made from chappati flour (wheat), which comes in different grades ranging from very fine, almost resembling like plain flour, to full, grainy wholemeal. Plain flour or all purpose flour is often used for other types of rotis, parathas or naans as it tends to be more flaky, turns a nice, golden brown when fried and is more malleable. Sometimes the two flours (chappati and plain) are mixed to obtain the right balance.

A basic dough is made from flour, water and a little salt. But for the more luxury rotis or parathas or naans, the dough is prepared from warm milk, even a little sugar and often some ghee/oil/butter is added. For special tandoori naans, yoghurt is also added to the ingredients when making a dough to give a more richer texture. In spicy rotis or naans, crushed red/green chillies, chopped coriander, cumin etc. can be added too. And rotis are made from other types of flour too, not just wheat, such as chick pea flour (basin), maize, corn flour but these remain infrequent in use.

And now for the filling: so once the dough is made and rolled out, it can be put straight onto a hot large plate, usually a tawa, and cooked quickly or it can be taken in a multitude of directions. For parathas, you can spread butter or ghee, fold, re-roll and cook in some ghee.  Or you can stuff with cooked daal, cauliflower, spicy mashed potatoes, in fact stuff it with anything till the cows come home!

Of-course all these combos were too lowly for the Mughals! They preferred theirs made from cream (the dough) and butter, mixed in with sultanas, dried apricots, almonds and made soft and succulent and rich with complex kneading methods. Some of Mughal breads, such as Sheer Maal, is made from layered dough, butter in between each layer rather like the French croissant.

Here is Rumali roti, essential to all Pakistani meals. Rumal, meaning a handkerchief, is rolled out into a very large, thin roti, folded at the end just like a handkerchief!

INGREDIENTS

200g plain flour

200g chappati wheat flour

salt to taste

lukewarm water

plain flour for dusting during rolling

A large tawa or a flat pan

METHOD

1. Mix both types of flours, if possible sieve before starting, add salt and mix with a little water at a time until all the dry flour has turned into wet crumbs.

2. Bring it together by kneading, adding a little water if the dough is still too stiff. The aim is to make the dough smooth, soft and malleable. Cover with a moist muslin cloth and leave to rest for 1/2 hour.

3. Take a chunk of dough and make it into a small ball (the size of a tangerine), then roll it out, dusting with flour if sticking to the rolling surface and roll out as thin and large as you can manage without letting it stick. A good 30cm or 12inch is what you’re aiming for.

4. Carefully put on the hot griddle/tawa. As soon as you see the colour change, turn it over and cook for a few minutes. Rotate the roti around to ensure even cooking.

5. TRICKY BIT: Using a tong, hold the edge of the roti, move the tawa away from the flames and leaving half of the roti on the tawa, cook the other half directly over the flames, rotating the roti around and turning both sides. You will see the roti fill with steam (be careful not to pierce as the steam could burn you) and fluff up into a ball. Take it off the tawa.

6.Optional: spread a little butter/ghee then fold over into half, then quarters. Keep in a thick cloth, a clean, dry tea towel is fine but this needs to be re-wrapped into something better if presenting on a table.

With practise, the making of it gets better; in most Pakistani homes, women can make 10+ of these for every meal with their eyes closed.

Sheer Seviyan

An Eid dessert to be enjoyed through all the year round! Delicious, comforting like a big hug or a soft blanket, not too dissimilar to a rice pudding or a custard pudding in character. You will want a second helping!

INGREDIENTS

2 litres whole full fat creamy milk

200g golden caster sugar (or to taste)

10 cardamom pods seeds crushed into powder

2 tablespoon pure ghee

300f fine vermicelli

50g pistachios cut lengthways

50g plum raisins

50g freshly blanched almonds, sliced lengthways

50g dried coconut cut into thin slices

3 tablespoon of rose water or kewra water

METHOD

1. In a large pan, over high heat, boil the milk with sugar, cardamom seeds (discard the outer casing) until the milk has reduced by half.

2. In a separate pan, heat the ghee and fry the vermicelli until golden brown (take care not to burn).

3. Add raisins and all the nuts.

4. Pour the reduced milk and let it simmer for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and sprinkle some rose water (optional: add some saffron infused in a little warm milk).

There are personal preferences: can be served hot, warm or cold. Whatever the choice, it is a classic Pakistani dessert, descended from our over spoilt Nazims.  

Nawabi Raan

This is feast food – a whole leg of lamb, marinated overnight and cooked in the oven until the meat is falling off the bones. Be sure to get good, quality organic lamb – there are now halal organic suppliers online – or else all the effort will go to waste.

INGREDIENTS – marinade

1 1/2kg leg of organic lamb

300g Greek yoghurt

1 large onion

3inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

6 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoon Essential Garam Masala

2 tablespoon coriander seeds, roasted and grounded

1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilly crushed

1 lemon – juice squeezed

100g fresh coriander, chopped finely

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 1/2 spoonful coarse sea salt

100ml sunflower oil

METHOD

1.Wash the lamb and pat dry. 

2. Apart from lamb, mix all the ingredients into a thick paste.

2. Make deep cuts all over the meat joint.

4. Rub the mixture all over the lamb, filling in all the cuts and ensuring good coverage. Put the lamb in a roasting tin.

5. Leave it to marinade in the fridge overnight or at least 6 hours.

6. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Roast the lamb for 1-1 1/2 hour, basting it every 15 minutes with some extra oil. For the last 1/2 half turn off the oven and put on the grill on a low setting and grill the lamb.

Serve on a large platter, surrounded by rings of red onions, green chillies (cut thinly lengthways), sliced tomatoes, small radishes and in a separate bowl, mint yoghurt and warm naans or rotis. A gourmet version of doner kebab, eaten on a Saturday night but gracefully at a table. 

 

 

 

 

 

Lassi

Not surprisingly, Lassi is the most popular drink in the sub-continent because it is quick to make, the ingredients are at hand and it is very cheap. In its basic form, only three ingredients are needed: yoghurt, water and salt or sugar, depending on whether you want it sweet or savoury. It is the ideal drink to extinguish the deadly heat of the summer and cool down the body.

Made with home-made yoghurt, it is tangy, sweet and sour and wonderfully refreshing. Being an ancient drink, it has evolved, with regional variations, strange concoctions, fruit added smoothies, or flavoured with exotic extracts.

Follow the simple recipe below and add your own preferred flavours.

500g plain yoghurt

Sugar or salt to taste

250ml milk

250ml water

crushed ice

Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth like double cream. Pour into tall tumblers and feel the river of ice flow down the throat!

OPTIONAL:

– add rose water

– add grounded green cardamoms

– add saffron

– add vanilla extract

– add chopped pistachios, almonds

– add mango pulp

– add strawberries/bananas/passion fruit etc.

– add little chilly powder (savoury)

– add grounded cumin (savoury)

There are countless variations, some with cream, or only water and yoghurt or only milk and yoghurt and so it goes on. And this is a good thing; our ancestors, our grandparents, our parents have left us culinary blueprint on how to make the most of what we have.

Kulfi

Like all other Pakistani dessert, Kulfi, the Pakistani ice-cream, must have milk, sugar and cardamom. Similar tasting to Phirni, Kheer, Rasmallai, Kulfi is everybody’s favourite eaten like a lollypop on a stick or in stemmed dessert dish if eating in a restaurant. In this particular instant, I prefer it plain, without the embellishment, though to make it more glamorous you could add saffron, rose petals, rose water, orange flower blossom, pistachios, almonds chunks, mango pulp and even chocolate! For a dinner party, you can build up your guest’s excitement by freezing within a surprise – a Swarovski ring, a chocolate gold coin, real coin, a love heart sweet or whatever! As children, we fought each other to find a coin, the equivalent of 50p! It was fun.

INGREDIENTS

200ml evaporated milk

200ml condensed milk

200ml double cream

3 cardamom – seeds crushed into fine powder

100g golden caster sugar

250g ground almond (ready bought!)

MEHOD

1.Blitz everything in a blender till smooth.

2. Pour either into a plastic container with a lid or in individual kulfi moulds.

3. Freeze overnight or for at least 6 hours if in a hurry.

It’s a perfect cooling anecdote after a spicy meal. No excuses are needed in any case to enjoy this delicious ice-cream. And watch the frenzy if your guests are expecting a surprise!

 

 

Classic Pakistani Breakfast

Simplest of meals, Paratha and Omelette, often appears on most people’s dying wish – the last meal! Perhaps it has something to do with childhood memories when on holidays or weekends, it was either made at home and enjoyed leisurely with the extended family or everybody squeezed into a car and drove to a darbar (street café) where it was eaten hot off the tawa!  For Pakistanis, it is comfort food, eaten since a child and whenever I make it, usually on a Sunday, everybody is instantly happy and excited – just like a child!

PARATHA

1 cup plain flour

1 cup chappati flour

100g butter or pure ghee

warm water

pinch of salt

METHOD

1. In a bowl, mix the 2 types of flour and salt, add water to make a dough. The dough must not be too hard or too soft. Leave aside on 1/2 hour covered to develop.

2. Have a plate of plain flour ready for dusting.

3. Take a piece of dough, the size of a tangerine and make it into a ball in between your palms.

4.Dust the work surface with some flour and roll out the dough into a medium size circle, rather like a pizza base.

5. Spread thinly either with butter or ghee. Ensure good coverage.

6. Roll it into a long, thin ‘swiss roll’ roll. Lift one end and swirl it around (making sure there are no gaps in between) and form a ball again. Once again, roll it out into a medium size circle resembling a pizza base.

7. The pan or ‘tawa’ should be hot; with a kitchen paper, take a tiny bit of cooking oil and wipe the pan/tawa (to prevent any sticking).

8. Pick up the rolled out paratha and put on the pan/tawa. Cook for 1 minute and then turn over. Cook for 4-5 minutes, rotating around all the time. Take 1/2  teaspoon of butter or ghee and put to the side of the hot pan – this will brown the paratha and make it crispy. Turn over to the original side and again put 1/2 teaspoon of butter or ghee to the side of the pan. Fold over and take the paratha out of the pan/tawa and put on a serving plate.

SPICY OMELLETE (per person – multiply according to numbers)

2 large or 3 medium size organic eggs per person

1/2 medium onion diced

1-2 green chillies cut finely

Few stalks of fresh coriander – chopped

salt to taste

couple of generous pinches of freshly ground black peppercorn

1 teaspoon of sunflower oil and 1/2 teaspoon of butter or ghee

METHOD

1. Mix the eggs in a bowl and add the chopped onion, green chillies, coriander and salt. Beat till light and fluffly.

2. Heat oil with butter/ghee. Pour the egg mixture and cook for few minutes.

3. Turn over the omelette and cook the other side – this time only for 1-2 minutes.

4. Place on a serving plate and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.

Since only one paratha can be made at a time, there is usually a waiting queue; in our home the first paratha goes to the person who has to pay a penalty for being the first one to eat – wash the dishes. The last consumer is rewarded with a luscious breakfast since all the prepared ingredients have to be used up. This is what I meant at the beginning; eating a breakfast of parathas and omelette turns us all to kids!

 

 

Haleem

Twice a year, Haleem is cooked in traditional Pakistani homes to commemorate two very important religious events in the Islamic calendar: Ramadan and Muharram. Ramadan, the month of fasting and Muharram is the first month in the Islamic calendar but more importantly it is also the month which marks the anniversary of the death of prophet Muhammed’s grandson, Imam Hussein ibn Ali at the battle of Karbala.

Our courtyard, back in Pakistan, was completely taken over by hired cooks who would cook Haleem for a whole day and a whole night in gigantic cauldron over wood fire. We used to be gobsmacked at the quantity of ingredients that went in, like a whole sack of onions that were peeled then sliced thinly, peeled and crushed garlic, ginger by cupful! But then, Haleem was cooked as offering to the local community or neighbourhood, especially those less fortunate. That was the theory – we ate by bucketful!

Haleem is a complete meal, it does not require rice or roti but is eaten straight with a spoon. The dish came to India from the Middle East and unlike other dishes, it contains wheat or barley. Other constituents are five different types of lentils and meat (usually mutton). It is heavily spiced and seasoned. Here the recipe is, naturally, streamlined and although I personally do not have a preference for this, but a pressure cooker can be used to speed up the cooking. In its authentic form, lentils, meat, wheat are cooked separately and combined later. But in my North London kitchen, there is neither the space or a big enough cooker to accommodate several large pots at once – hence this Haleem takes place in one very, very large pot. I have not found the flavours compromised in anyway; but there is no magic of staying up all night and sneaking into our courtyard to have a go at stirring with a giant spoon.

INGREDIENTS PART ONE

2 kg lamb (my preferred red meat) consisting of 1kg meat on the bone such as shoulder and chest, cut into pieces and 1kg meat without bones, taken from the leg and cut into cubes.

200g cracked wheat – soaked 2 hours

150g urad daal – washed and soaked 2 hours

150g chana daal – washed and soaked 2 hours

150g masoor daal – washed and soaked 2 hours

150g moong daal – washed and soaked 2 hours

150g mash daal – washed and soaked 2 hours

2 large onions thinly sliced

paste of 2 garlic head and 4inch fresh ginger

2 teaspoon crushed Kashmiri chillies

1 level teaspoon turmeric powder

2 tablespoon freshly grounded coriander powder

2 full tablespoon Essential Garam Masala

4 large tomatoes, skinned and chopped

some oil for frying

2 teaspoon salt

METHOD PART ONE

1. In a large pan, put oil and sliced onions and fry until golden brown.

2. Add fresh tomatoes and fry.

3. Add garlic and ginger paste and fry.

4. Add all the spices, including 1 tablespoon Essential Garam Masala (leave aside the remaining 1 tablespoon to be used at the end of the cooking). Fry for 1 minute.

4. Add the meat and fry until golden brown.

5. Add all the washed pulses and cracked meat. Add salt and mix everything.

6. Add 1 litre water, bring everything to a quick boil then reduce heat and simmer; cook slowly for 4-5 hours until meat is tender.

7. Strip meat from the bones and remove the bones.

8. Mash everything using a potato masher until everything, including the meat, takes on the consistency of porridge. Check for salt and adjust. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon Essential Garam Masala.

INGREDIENTS PART TWO – Final Garnishing

1 large onion thinly sliced – fried in oil till dark brown then cooled on kitchen paper

1 bunch of fresh coriander finely chopped

1/2 bunch of fresh mint finely chopped

2/3 lemons sliced into thin wedges

3inch fresh ginger, cut into thin juliennes

1 whole white raddish thinly sliced into discs

6 fresh green chillies cut lenghtways

2 dessert spoon chaat masala

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Serve the haleem in a very large open mouthed pot or tureen. Use half of the ingredients above and garnish. In a separate one large platter, or several smaller bowls (personal preference), put the rest of all the ingredients for diners to add more of this and that as they wish.

No need to serve anything else! Except a selection of drinks: water with crushed ice or homemade lemonade or salty lassi. Be warned – you will need to sleep afterwards!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paya

The consumer knows the score: he drools as the knife goes in straight to his heart!   Let me explain – this dish has 100% of everything banned under the sun: 100% full fat, 100% cholesterol, 100% salt to list a few. The fat Moghuls, leaning against giant bolsters, didn’t care; they were 100% into gluttony! It would be a kamikaze of a dish if eaten frequently but like any other rich food, you would exercise moderation. The basis of Paya is trotters, be it lamb, mutton, goat or cow’s. In our household of my childhood, it was cooked during the winters, over couple of days, in a gigantic cauldron, starting with all the hairs on the foot singed over burning fire to cooking over wood flames overnight. Fortunately, in our Pakistani butcher’s shop, the trotters or the payas are well cleaned, cut into sensible size pieces and nicely presented to meet our more European standards.

PART ONE

INGREDIENTS

2kg paya mutton (in Britain mutton trotters are usually available); they should be cleaned and cut into small roughly 4 inch pieces;

1 large onion

1 garlic head, peeled

2 inch fresh ginger, cut roughly

Whole garam masala: 1 full tablespoon of cumin seeds, 1 full tablespoon of coriander seeds, 2 long sticks of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon cloves and 8-10 large, black cardamoms.

5 bay leaves

1 level teaspoon salt.

3 litres of water

METHOD

1. Put everything in a large pot, together with water, bring quickly to a boil; let it boil for a few minutes and remove any froth or scum that floats on top.

2. Then reduce heat and let it cook slowly over low heat for 6+ hours till the paya are well done. Top up with more water during cooking if water appears to be evaporating too much.

 

PART TWO

INGREDIENTS

1 large onions – thinly sliced

1 garlic head and 2 inch fresh ginger made into a paste in a blender

SPICES FOR TEMPERING: 1 level teaspoon Kashmiri crushed chillies, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, 2 teaspoon coriander powder

Salt to taste (only add more salt if it needs it otherwise leave it out)

200g yoghurt

2 tablespoon sunflower oil for frying

METHOD

1. In a large, clean pan fry the onion till dark brown, but not burnt.

2. Add the garlic and ginger paste and fry quickly for 1 minute.

3. Mix the powdered spices with yoghurt to make a smooth paste then put in the pan. Fry quickly for 4-5 minutes.

4. Take out the paya meat from the previous pot and put in the new pot and fry for couple of minutes.

5. Discarding the whole spices in the previous pan, carefully add just the liquid. There should be 6-8cm of liquid over the paya meat, it there isn’t, top up to make a running ‘shorwa’ or soup. Check for salt and adjust.

FOR GARNISH

Chop half a bunch of fresh coriander and scatter over the cooked Paya. Finish with a sprinkling of 1 teaspoon of Essential Garam Masala.

Serve hot with naan or roti; this does not need any other side dishes, something of a rare occurrence. Eat with your heart and soul and sing hallelujah – and pray that you live to see another day!

 

Pasanda

You will need to slice the bought lamb yourself; I have yet to meet a butcher who has either the patience or nimble fingers to slice it very thinly! The meat is boneless and is taken from the leg so that it looks like a large piece of steak. With a sharp knife, slice thinly as you can, cutting small round or long pieces; imagine bought smoked salmon slices as an analogy. Once done, the rest is simple as the meat stays in the fridge marinated overnight then cooked slowly with not too much involvement from the cook. So cutting the lamb meat into the thinnest slices is the only major job.

FOR THE MARINADE

700g good quality lamb taken from the leg and sliced thinly

1 garlic head, peeled and made into paste in a blender with 3 inch ginger, 1 large onion, 1 level teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoon Essential Garam Masala, half a bunch of fresh corriander and 500g yoghurt.

Add the paste to the sliced lamb, rub the mixture well and leave to marinade overnight or for 12 hours in the fridge.

TO COOK PASANDA

Put 2 tablespoonful of sunflower oil (for the health conscious) or 2 tablespoon of ghee (but not both). Cut and slice one large onion and fry with 2-3 large black cardomoms till dark brown but not burnt. Add the marinated lamb meat and fry (the Urdu word for this is ‘bhuna’) over medium heat;  this will take anything up to 20 minutes. The aim is to release the aromas from the spices and brown the meat in the marinated sauce. Next, reduce heat to its lowest setting, add 2 teacups of water and cook the meat for 45 minutes till the lamb is tender. This is a thick gravy based dish and once cooked there should only be a layer of sauce coating the meat.

To garnish, in a frying pan, quickly and lightly fry in a little oil or ghee, green chillies that have been cut lengthways. Serve the pasanda on a large platter and garnish with the fried green chillies.

Serve this with a luxury Pakistani bread such as sheer maal but would be equally delicious with rumai roti as well. As ever, the usual culprits, chutney, raita and salad, are present in their supporting roles.