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Dabba gosht

Only a Dawoodi Bohra kitchen would put macaroni into a mutton curry and bake it under a lid of egg, and dabba gosht is the triumphant result, made in Karachi for weddings, Eid and the big communal meals of Muharram. Boneless mutton is simmered until tender in a pale gravy of yogurt and ground cashew, mixed with soft elbow macaroni, poured into a dabba (a tin or deep dish), covered with whisked eggs and baked until golden on top. Inside it is creamy and mild with black pepper and cardamom; the crust is soft and set. The pitfall is overcooking the pasta before it goes in, because it keeps drinking sauce in the oven; boil it two minutes short. Chef's tip: keep the sauce looser than you think it should be when you assemble, as it thickens a lot under the egg.

100 min

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Namkeen gosht

Pashtun cooking has a proud streak of minimalism, and namkeen gosht (salted meat) shows it best: lamb on the bone cooked slowly in a karahi or heavy pot in its own fat with salt, then finished with tomatoes and green chillies, and nothing else bar a crack of black pepper. In Peshawar and the tribal districts it is made in big pots for jirga gatherings and Eid, and on cold Swat evenings it is what the family eats with thick naan and a plate of raw onion. The meat ends up meltingly tender, the gravy is a glossy reduction of fat and juices. Adding water too early is the misstep; the lamb should first release and fry in its own liquid. Chef's tip: choose fatty pieces like ribs and shoulder; lean leg alone will turn dry and stringy with this method.

120 min

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Gushtaba

No Kashmiri wedding feast ends without gushtaba. After hours of wazwan courses, the waza (master cook) brings out these large, pale balls of mutton pounded with fat until silky, swimming in a creamy yogurt gravy scented with fennel, dry ginger and cardamom, and its arrival tells guests the meal is over. Families of Kashmiri descent in Muzaffarabad, Mirpur and Rawalpindi still serve it at weddings and on special Fridays, with plain steamed rice. Good gushtaba is so smooth that it barely holds together on the spoon. Using lean meat is what lets people down: without about a quarter fat the balls turn grainy and hard. Chef's tip: traditionally the meat is pounded on a stone for an hour; at home, process it in short bursts with chilled fat and ice-cold water, stopping to scrape down, until it looks like a sticky, shiny paste.

120 min

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Lagan ni seekh

At a Dawoodi Bohra thaal in Karachi's Saddar or Burhani Park, the meal opens with a pinch of salt and a sweet, and lagan ni seekh is often among the first savoury dishes passed round the big shared tray: a "seekh kebab baked in a lagan", the shallow pan that names it. Spiced mince with fried onion, green chilli and mint is pressed into a dish, covered with beaten egg and baked until the top puffs and turns golden, then cut into squares. It is eaten warm with paratha or just as it is, and it is a favourite at Eid and wedding feasts. Skipping the step of cooking the mince dry first is the mistake to avoid; raw mince releases water under the egg and the squares go soggy. Chef's tip: lay a few rings of tomato and green chilli on the egg before baking, the way Bohra aunties do, so every square has a bright top.

65 min

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Dumpukht

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially around Eid-ul-Adha when there is fresh lamb in every house, dumpukht is the slow, quiet dish: big pieces of lamb on the bone, a little tail fat, onions, salt and pepper, sealed in a heavy deg and left to steam in their own juices for hours. Nothing is browned, nothing is spiced loudly; the meat simply turns soft and sweet, with a clear, fatty broth at the bottom of the pot that is spooned over Peshawari naan or eaten with plain rice. It is the Pashtun idea of luxury: good meat, patience and fire. The trap is a loose lid, since escaping steam means the pot dries out and the meat stews dry; seal it with foil under the lid or a strip of dough. Chef's tip: lay a few whole potatoes in with the meat; they cook in the juices and are fought over at the table.

180 min

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Khaddi kebab

A khaddi, in Baloch country, is a pit dug in the ground and lined with hot stones; a whole goat or lamb, rubbed with salt and spices and stuffed with rice, is lowered in, covered with earth and left for hours, then dug out for weddings and tribal feasts. Few home cooks have a pit, so this version roasts a bone-in lamb shoulder low and slow under foil, then sets it on a tray of part-cooked rice so the rice drinks the dripping juices, the same marriage of meat and rice the pit gives. The meat should pull apart with a spoon and the rice taste deeply of lamb. Stuffing raw rice inside a big joint is where cooks go wrong at home: the centre stays underdone and is not safe, so cook the rice under the meat instead. Chef's tip: roast the lamb the day before, chill it in its juices and lift off the hard fat, then reheat with the rice; it carves more neatly too.

300 min

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Aloo gosht

If one curry stands for a weekday dinner in a Pakistani house, from Rawalpindi flats to Karachi's Nazimabad, it is aloo gosht: mutton on the bone and halved potatoes in a loose, peppery shorba meant to be soaked up with chapati or poured over plain rice. Nothing about it is fancy; its comfort comes from a long bhuna of onion, tomato and spice before any water goes in, so the thin gravy still tastes deep. The potatoes go in once the meat is half done and come out soft at the edges, having drunk the gravy. Adding them at the start leaves them falling apart while the meat is still chewy, so wait. Chef's tip: when the masala is fully fried, add the water boiling hot, not cold, so the meat keeps cooking and the shorba stays clear rather than greasy.

90 min

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Bhindi gosht

Summer in Punjab means okra in every bazaar, and the moment small, tender pods appear, households start making bhindi gosht for lunch: a dry-ish mutton curry with whole fried okra folded through at the end, tasting of tomato, green chilli and a little dried mango. It is eaten with chapati and a bowl of plain yogurt or raita on the side, and leftovers are even better packed in a tiffin the next day. The okra should be tender and bright, not slimy. That stringy texture comes from washing the okra and cutting it while wet, so wash and dry it completely before you trim it. Chef's tip: fry the okra separately until its edges blister, then add it to the meat only in the last ten minutes; it keeps its shape and the gravy stays clean.

90 min

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Palak gosht

When the winter spinach comes in around Gujranwala and Sheikhupura, bunches of it are piled on carts by the armful, and palak gosht is what many Punjabi kitchens make with them. The spinach is cooked into the mutton until it collapses into a dark green, garlicky gravy, loose but not soupy, with flecks of ginger and the warmth of green chilli rather than a lot of red spice. It is eaten with makki ki roti or plain chapati and a glass of lassi. Puréeing the spinach to a smooth paste is a frequent misstep; Punjabi cooks chop it and let it melt so you can still see the leaves. Chef's tip: add a knob of butter or ghee and a pinch of dried fenugreek leaves at the end, which rounds off the iron edge of the spinach.

95 min

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Achar gosht

Sour, hot and pungent, achar gosht borrows its whole flavour from a jar of pickle: fennel, nigella, fenugreek, mustard seed and cumin fried in mustard oil, with lemon and long green chillies stuffed with the same spices. It belongs to the Urdu-speaking kitchens of Karachi and Hyderabad, where it is made for dinner guests and shared at office lunches, and it is eaten with naan or tandoori roti, never with a delicate pulao. The gravy is thick and clings to the meat, glistening with oil. The step people rush is roasting the pickling spices; they must be toasted and coarsely crushed, not used whole, or the curry tastes raw and seedy. Chef's tip: mustard oil gives the true pickle tang; heat it until it smokes, then let it cool for a minute before adding anything, so it loses its harsh edge.

95 min

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Dal gosht

Stretching a kilo of mutton to feed a big family is an old Pakistani household skill, and dal gosht is its most loved result: chana dal cooked with the meat until the lentils melt into a thick, golden, peppery gravy that is half curry, half stew. It turns up for Friday lunch in Punjab and for everyday dinners in Karachi Urdu-speaking homes, eaten with hot chapati, rice and a sharp salad of onion and tomato. Done right, some dal stays whole while the rest thickens the gravy. A common slip is adding raw dal to the pot at the same time as the meat; dal cooks faster, so it collapses into paste before the mutton is tender. Chef's tip: finish with a tarka of ghee, cumin and fried garlic for a Sunday version, or leave it plain with oil for an everyday pot that stays dairy free.

100 min

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Namak mandi tikka

Namak Mandi, the old salt market inside Peshawar's walled city, is now a street of smoke and sizzling skewers, and its tikka is famous because it needs almost nothing: chunks of lamb threaded between cubes of dumba tail fat, salted and grilled over charcoal until the fat melts and bastes the meat. You eat it at a long table off a sheet of hot naan, with raw tomato wedges, onion and green chilli, and pots of green tea afterwards. It tastes of lamb, salt and smoke and nothing else, which is the point. Over-marinating is what goes wrong, oddly enough: piling on spices or yogurt hides the meat, and salting too early draws out moisture, so salt just before grilling. Chef's tip: if your butcher has no tail fat, use well-marbled shoulder and thread a few pieces of the lamb's own fat between the cubes.

35 min

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Shab deg

Shab deg is the "night pot": in old Lahore and in Kashmiri families the deg really was set on dying embers after the evening meal and opened at dawn, by which time whole turnips had soaked up the mutton juices and turned almost sweet. It is a winter dish made when turnips are at their best, usually for a wedding breakfast or a cold Sunday, and it arrives as tender meat on the bone, soft meatballs and golden turnips in a thick saffron-scented gravy, eaten with naan or sheermal. A low oven gives the same slow, even heat without anyone staying up. Many cooks drop the meatballs in raw and stir hard, and they fall apart; fry them first and slide them in without stirring. Chef's tip: prick the turnips all over and rub them with a little salt and sugar before frying, which draws out their bitterness and helps them colour.

315 min

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Kunna gosht

Chiniot, the furniture town on the Chenab, claims this dish as its own: mutton and marrow bones packed into a narrow-necked clay pot called a kunna, sealed with dough and left to cook slowly in the embers of a bakery oven. The result is a deep red, almost syrupy gravy that clings to every piece, with a layer of spiced ghee floating on top, and it is eaten on Sundays and at family gatherings with hot naan straight from the tandoor. At home a heavy casserole sealed with foil under the lid does the same job. People often lift the lid to check, and every peek lets out the steam that makes the gravy glossy; trust the clock and the low heat. Chef's tip: ask for a few pieces of shank and marrow bone in the mix, because the gelatine from them gives kunna its sticky shine.

170 min

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Khajoor shake

Dates are the first thing on the table when the azan sounds for iftar in Pakistan, and in many homes in Karachi and Islamabad the dates go straight into the blender with cold milk and a handful of soaked almonds, making a thick, caramel-sweet shake that restores energy quickly after a long summer fast. Soft, moist dates such as the Aseel from Khairpur in Sindh give the smoothest result, and the drink needs no added sugar at all. It is also a popular breakfast for children and a quick snack after school. The typical mistake is blending dry, hard dates straight from the packet, which leaves chewy fragments and a gritty shake. Chef's tip: soak the stoned dates and almonds in a little warm milk for 10 minutes first, and blend them to a smooth paste before adding the rest of the cold milk.

10 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Sardai

Old Lahoris remember the sardai-wala in the lanes of the Walled City, sitting cross-legged with a huge stone mortar and a wooden pestle, grinding soaked almonds, melon seeds, fennel, poppy seeds and black pepper into a pale paste and whisking it into chilled sweet milk. It is creamy, nutty and floral, with the gentle aniseed cool of fennel and a little warmth from pepper, and it was drunk through the hot months as protection against heat. Today it is easier to make with a blender, but the principle is the same: soak, grind fine, strain, chill. Many people forget to soak the seeds long enough, and the drink ends up gritty with a chalky aftertaste. Chef's tip: soak everything for at least 2 hours, or overnight, and strain through a muslin cloth, squeezing hard, so the sardai is silky and full of flavour.

30 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Tumuro tea

Tumuro is the small-leaved wild thyme that grows on the rocky slopes above Hunza and Gilgit, and in late summer families pick and dry bundles of it to brew through the year. The tea is pale gold and intensely aromatic, more resinous and floral than garden thyme, and it is drunk after heavy meals, by anyone with a cold and simply as a warming cup on a mountain evening; cafés in Karimabad serve it to visitors. Boiling it hard for a long time is the misstep that turns it bitter and medicinal. Chef's tip: if you cannot find tumuro, which is sometimes sold in Pakistani grocers and online as Hunza thyme, use dried garden thyme with a few fresh sprigs, steep it gently, and sweeten with a little sugar only if you like.

10 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Rista

Rista is gushtaba's scarlet twin on the wazwan spread, smaller, softer meatballs of pounded mutton cooked in a thin, glowing red gravy instead of yogurt. The colour comes from Kashmiri chillies and mawal, dried cockscomb flower steeped in hot water, and the flavour from fennel, dry ginger and black cardamom fried in mustard oil; it is aromatic rather than brutally hot. Kashmiri families in Azad Kashmir and in Pakistani cities serve it at weddings and big lunches with mounds of steamed rice, and it is often the dish guests remember. Under-pounding is the classic mistake, because coarse meat gives chewy, grainy balls. Chef's tip: if you cannot find mawal, the gravy is still right without it; for extra colour, add one extra teaspoon of Kashmiri chilli rather than food colouring.

105 min

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Marchwangan korma

The name says it all: marchwangan means chilli, and this is the wazwan's hottest course, mutton cooked in a deep crimson gravy of Kashmiri chillies, mustard oil, fennel, dry ginger and a breath of cinnamon, with a spoonful of tamarind for sharpness. Kashmiri chillies bring colour more than ferocity, so you need a lot of them, and a few hotter dried chillies give the real kick. It is served at weddings and family feasts in Azad Kashmir and by Kashmiri households in Lahore and Rawalpindi with plain rice, alongside milder dishes like gushtaba to cool the palate. Scorching the chilli paste is how it goes wrong; it turns bitter and brown, so fry it on a moderate heat with a splash of water. Chef's tip: soak the whole dried chillies in hot water and blend them rather than using only powder, for a smoother, glossier gravy.

110 min

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Doodh soda

It sounds odd until you are standing in a crowd at a Lahore milk shop on a 45 °C June night, when a tall glass of doodh soda, foamy and sweet with a sharp citrus fizz, is the most refreshing thing in the city. The doodh-walas of Gawalmandi and Mozang chill milk in steel drums over ice, then pour it from a height into a glass with lemon-lime soda so that it froths like a milkshake, and people drink it straight after dinner or after a late plate of fried fish or chana. It tastes like a lighter, bubbly lassi, and children love it. What usually goes wrong is warm milk or flat soda, which makes it taste curdled rather than crisp. Chef's tip: chill both the milk and the soda until very cold, pour the milk first and add the soda in one go, then serve at once while the foam is high.

5 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Kachi lassi

Harvest time in the Punjab is thirsty work: when the wheat is being cut in the April heat, a steel jug of kachi lassi is carried out to the workers: fresh milk thinned with cold water, stirred with sugar and poured over chunks of ice. Unlike yogurt lassi there is no tang, just a light, clean, milky sweetness that quenches thirst better than plain water, and in many villages it is the drink offered to any guest who arrives on a hot afternoon. Some people add a pinch of salt instead of sugar, or a few drops of rose water. The traditional kind uses raw milk straight from the buffalo; use pasteurised milk instead to be safe. The usual mistake is making it with too little water, which turns it heavy instead of refreshing. Chef's tip: whisk it hard or shake it in a jar so it turns frothy, which makes it feel even cooler.

5 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Falsa sherbet

For a few short weeks in May and June, Punjabi fruit sellers from Multan to Lahore pile their carts with falsa, tiny purple-black berries with a big seed and a sweet-sour, grape-like flavour, and roadside stalls crush them in big jugs of iced water with sugar and a pinch of black salt. The sherbet is a striking magenta, tart and salty-sweet, and people swear by it as a cooler against the loo, the scorching summer wind; it is also a favourite at iftar when Ramadan falls in summer. Outside Pakistan look for frozen falsa in South Asian grocers, or use blackcurrants, which give a similar colour and sharpness. A common slip is blending the berries hard, which cracks the seeds and turns the drink bitter. Chef's tip: just rub the berries with the sugar and a little water by hand or pulse very briefly, then strain, so you get all the juice and colour and none of the bitterness.

15 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Imli aloo bukhara sharbat

Pakistani grandmothers prescribe this deep brown drink for heatstroke, an upset stomach and the sluggish days of Ramadan fasting in June, and it is sold in tall glasses at sehri and iftar stalls in Karachi, Hyderabad and Lahore. Tamarind and dried aloo bukhara plums are soaked, simmered, mashed and strained into a concentrate, which is then sweetened, seasoned with black salt and roasted cumin and served poured over ice. The flavour is fruity, tart and slightly smoky from the plums, with the savoury lift of the salt. The concentrate keeps for a week in the fridge, so a big batch lasts through a heatwave. The usual problem is skipping the straining step and serving it thick with fibres and seeds, which makes it more like a chutney than a drink. Chef's tip: let the plums soak in the hot liquid for an hour after simmering, so they give up all their sourness and colour before you strain them.

30 min

Pakistani Drinks

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Rosh

Winter in Quetta is bitterly cold, and rosh is what keeps the city warm: lamb on the bone, fat and all, simmered in a huge pot with nothing more than salt, onions and tomatoes until the broth turns golden and the meat slips off the bone. In the restaurants of Jinnah Road and on Kandahari Bazaar it is served in steel bowls, the meat piled on one plate and the broth in another, with thick Afghan-style naan torn in and eaten with the hands. Its pleasure is purity: you taste lamb, salt and a little sweetness from the onion. The frequent error is a rolling boil, which turns the broth cloudy and the meat tough; it should barely tremble. Chef's tip: use plenty of fat and some rib and tail pieces, because the fat carries the flavour in a dish with no spices.

120 min

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