Kachumber salad is a fresh vegetable salad made with onions, tomatoes and cucumbers. Enjoy it with daal chawal, curries, or just on its own. We don’t eat a lot of salads in Pakistani curries. If a salad is served, it is usually raw – sliced tomatoes or cucumbers, maybe some turnip sprinkled with salt, black pepper or some vinegar and lemon juice. The one salad that is common in Pakistan is the kachumber salad. It’s super quick to make –…
Keema samosa is a popular Pakistani snack with a filling of keema enclosed in a flour based pastry and deep fried. Enjoy it hot with mint chutney on the side. Samosa making is an art learnt by trial and error and a line of broken samosa pattis along the way. Every year in Ramadan samosa making was a ritual with my mother. I remember how I struggled when she started teaching me. As much as I tried, I could never…
Onion pakora, pyaz pakora or onion fritters are a Pakistani / Indian appetizer made with sliced onion and coriander coated with a spicy chickpea flour batter and deep-fried till crispy. What are pakoras? Pakora or pakoda are the Pakistani version of a fritter, but made with besan (chickpea flour in English). It’s a snack that is synonymous with the rainy season, and the moment it rains, what everyone wants is crispy crunchy vegetable pakoras with chai. It is also an…
Chana chaat is the Desi version of a salad. The base is chickpeas or chana with onions, tomatoes, green chilies and coriander as the supporting characters finished off with chaat masala and lemon juice for that necessary spice and khataaz! How to make chana chaat? Start off with boiling chickpeas or what is known as chana or sufaid chole in Hindi / Urdu. In fact, another name for chana chaat is chole ki chaat. You can also use canned chickpeas.…
Similar to potato fritters, aloo pakora or aloo pakoda (in Hindi) are a traditional Pakistani / Indian appetizer of sliced potatoes that are coated with a spicy chickpea flour batter and deep-fried till golden brown. What are pakoras? Pakoras are the Pakistani version of a fritter, but made with besan (chickpea flour in English). The traditional ones are the potato pakoras (aloo kay pakoray) and onion pakoras (piyaaz kay pakoray), but chicken pakoras (boti kay pakoray), spinach pakoras (palak kay…
Aloo gosht (mutton curry with potatoes) is a Pakistani meat curry made with meat (mutton or goat meat in this recipe) and potatoes in a curry base made of onion and tomatoes. Recipe includes stovetop method and pressure cooker method. What is Aloo Gosht (Mutton curry with Potatoes)? Literally named for the main two ingredients in this salan, which are aloo (potatoes) and gosht (meat), aloo gosht is a curry that is probably made in every Pakistani household once…
Pakistani karahi chicken (or kadai chicken) is a simple and super delicious curry made with chicken, lots of tomatoes and of course coriander to garnish in the end. Enjoy with rice or tandoori naan. Karahi chicken is one of those quintessential Pakistani dishes that can be seen regularly at menus, whether at a cafe, a fancy restaurant and most often at roadside dhaba’s. The name of the recipe is derived from the way it is cooked, which is in a…