Chicken, mutton or beef?
Pakistani households cook all three, and the choice changes the clock more than the masala. Chicken is the weeknight meat: a chicken salan or karahi is on the table in under an hour. Mutton (goat) is the prized meat for Eid and guests; it needs 60 to 90 minutes, or a pressure cooker, before it’s tender. Beef is cheaper and has the deepest flavour, which is why it’s the traditional meat for long-cooked dishes like nihari, haleem and shami kebabs.
Ask the butcher for the right cut
Most recipes here assume bone-in meat cut into small pieces, because bones give the gravy body. A few terms are worth knowing at the shop. A karahi cut is a whole chicken without skin, cut into 12 to 16 small pieces. Qorma or salan cuts are larger, about the size of a matchbox. For nihari, ask for beef shank (nalli), and for kebabs ask the butcher to mince the meat twice with some fat left in. Lean mince makes dry kebabs.
Getting meat tender
Tough meat is the most common complaint, and it nearly always has one of three causes: the meat was cooked too fast, salted water boiled away and left it dry, or the cut was simply wrong for the dish. Slow dishes want gentle heat and a lid. Raw papaya paste or a spoon of yogurt in the marinade helps tough mutton. A pressure cooker cuts cooking time by two-thirds, and many recipes give timings for both methods.
The big occasion dishes
Some of these recipes are not quick, and that’s the point. Nihari is traditionally started the night before. Haleem means hours of cooking and beating with a wooden . Mutton qorma and paya are Eid and wedding food. Read through these recipes once before you start; the steps are simple, there are just a lot of hours between them.
Fish and seafood
Fish has its own season in Pakistan. When winter arrives, Lahore’s fish shops fry spicy, ajwain-scented Lahori fish in huge karahis, and Karachi, being on the coast, cooks prawn karahi all year round. Buy fish whole and ask for it cleaned and cut on the spot; firm river fish such as rahu or singhara works best for frying.