Nihari
This Nihari recipe is all you need to impress your fam and friends! It's authentically spiced with 10+ spices, so rich in flavor and absolutely delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 cup oil
- 1 red onion sliced
- 2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
- 2.5 lbs beef shanks boneless
- 1.5 lbs beef bones with marrow
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 4 bay leaves
- 3 garlic cloves and 1 piece ginger
- ½ tablespoon black pepper
Nihari Masala (whole spices to grind)
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- ½ piece dry ginger thumbsized
- 1 cumin seeds
- ½ tablespoon whole black pepper
- 3-4 long black pepper "pipli"
- ¼ piece nutmeg
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 black cardamom
- 5 green cardamom
- 2 inch cinammon stick
- 4 all spice berries "pimento"
- 1 star anise
Ground spices (to add to the above blend)
- 1 teaspoon red chili adjust to your heat preference
- 1.5 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon kashmi red chili
- ¾ teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoon salt
Flour Slurry
- ½ cup whole wheat flour "atta" you can use all purpose flour as well
- water to think it out
Garnishes
- Julienned ginger, lemon, cilantro and green chillis
Instructions
Make the Spice Blend
- Add the whole spices to your spice blender and pulse till ground. Add the ground spices to this mix and your Nihari Masala is ready!
Pressure Cook Meat
- In an Instant Pot, add your meat and bones with water up to the max line. To this add coriander seeds, bay leaves, whole ginger and garlic and black pepper and pressure cook on high for 7 mins (this is partial cooking only just to extract some stock). Separate the meat and bones and reserve the broth.
Make the Nihari
- In a large heavy bottom pot, sauté onions in oil till nice and brown, then add the partially pressure cooked meat and stir.
- Add ginger garlic paste and mix well, then add the Nihari masala that you have freshly made. You can add a touch of water so the spices don't burn. Mix for 5-6 minutes really well.
- Next, add your reserved broth until it is 4-5 inches above the meat. You're basically going to add as much as you like to create a nice stew. I ended up adding ¾ of the stock I got from the Instant Pot.
- Cover with a lid and let it cook on low heat for 75 minutes. The broth should simmer only slightly. After 75 minutes, the meat should be fall-apart tender. You can cook this for as long as you like on slow heat but keep in mind that we did pressure cook it in the beginning so it will get tender faster.
- When the meat is to your desired tenderness, mix whole wheat flour with water really well, then add it to the Nihari in a thin stream while continuously stirring. Don't rush because you don't want the flour to create lumps.
- Plate out the Nihari and top with the garnishes and serve with naan.
Notes
If making Nihari exclusively on the stove, it will likely take you 3-4 hours. I would recommend that you separately make the broth with just beef bones first. And then add the broth to the Nihari pot with the shanks. About midway during the cooking, I will add the bones into the pot.