Nihari

Recipe from my mother.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo (2+ lbs) “nihari” beef (hindshank) cut in large pieces
  • Make sure to include some bone. I got a 1.8 lb package that included bone (one huge bone) plus a .4 lbs just meat on top of that.
• 5 big serving spoons of canola oil (~3/4 cup)
• 2 pretty big “tablespoons” of ginger/garlic paste (if I don’t have, ok to just ground together half part ginger half part garlic)
• 1 packet Shan nihari mix
• flour
• cilantro
• ginger

Instructions:

1. Wash meat well in warm water
2. Preheat oven to 350 F (I won’t cook at this temp, but it’s good to start with a hot oven)
3. Add meat, oil, ginger/garlic paste, & Shan packet into a pot
4. Cook on medium-high heat and stir for ~2 mins
5. Add water until meat is completely covered (err slightly on the side of more)
6. Cook for 5 mins and then turn to low-ish heat
7. In a separate bowl, add 1 cup flour and enough water to make a paste - use some kind of mixer to make the paste (ask mom about this step, I didn’t do it quite right the first time and there were little clumps at the bottom of my pot at the end)
8. Add paste to pot slowly, mixing as you go so it doesn’t bunch up (don’t add flour chunks at the bottom of the paste, if there are chunks)
9. Turn oven down to 250 and put pot in oven
10. Cook for 5-6 hours (can do this overnight)
11. Make sure oil has come to the top and meat is cooked.
12. Check to see if it’s thick enough - if not, put it on the stove over medium heat for ~10 mins and then low heat for a while
13. Either way, chop ~1 small fistful of cilantro and ~10 slices of ginger (left out the ginger for Jack) and just let it sit on the oil at the top of the nihari for a while (don’t mix it for a little)