Nihari

 

Nihari:

It is stew dish consisting of shank meat, mutton and lamb meat with bone marrow and now chicken is also used with some spices, black pepper and flavor spices with different veggies according to locations and culture the process of its cooking is slow means it takes more time than other dishes.

Derivation of word Nihari:

Nihari is derived from Arabic language word “Nahar” which means morning and initially it was mostly or I can say only consumed by Nawabs of Mughal Empire because at that time having Nihari daily in the morning was too difficult for other people because mostly people were generally poor at that time and it was hard for them to earn bread in that era so Nawabs ate Nihari in the morning after Fajar prayer as their first meal of the day or as a breakfast

History of Nihari:

It was originated in 18^th century in Mughals last eras especially from Lucknow India. At first it was cooked to only eat in morning. Nihari is now attached its name with specifically with Muslims of both India and Pakistan. Back in the times people used to cook it whole night to have this delicious dish in breakfast.

But now people often have this dish at dinner so the affiliation of Nihari with breakfast is almost drawn down and yes I am agree with this point that why this delicious food is attached with one time which was morning only now a days eating habits of people changed they can’t eat heavy in the morning so if they want it at lunch or dinner it’s okay sometimes it’s healthy to break taboos which were created centuries ago because now time is changing and with it we should evolve as well.

Marketability of Nihari:

As I mentioned above this dish was affiliated with Muslims so after the partition of Bara-e-sageer most of the Muslims migrated to Pakistan in Karachi and there they started their restaurant business where they sold Nihari and gradually with the passage of time Nihari became popular and now it is almost available in every Pakistani restaurant in the world. Nali Nihari and bong Nihari are very famous throughout the world and not only Pakistani and Indians like it now it is like by foreigners as well. This is how Nihari got popularity due to its taste.

In few restaurant of both Pakistan and India there is a concept of “taar” which means the leftover of today’s Nihari in some kilos are added in the next day’s fresh Nihari they believe that this process enhance and increase the taste of Nihari and this process continues from the Mughals era.

The fun fact is it is consumed as a medicine to normal fever and for flu as well in many areas people actually got cured from this remedy.

Ingredients:

Meat (camel, cow and buffalo), mutton (goat, sheep), spices, garlic, ginger, onion, salt, and flour.

Step to cook Nihari:

1. First of take a pot and boil meat

2. Make curry by using veggies and spices with salt.

3. Now take another pot put meat, curry and heated brown flour with salt and some water, mix all the ingredients nicely and properly and let the pot on heat until its little bit thick.

4. Now take a bowl out from pot and eat it with bread or have it like soup, whatever you prefer.