Pakistani Slow-Cooked Lamb Stew

Name: Pakistani Slow-Cooked Lamb Stew
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Pakistani
Ingredients: Kosher salt, to taste; 1 tbsp. coriander seeds; ¼ cup all-purpose flour; 2 tbsp. ghee, melted; Coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, lemon or lime wedges, and finely chopped Thai chiles, to garnish; 1 tbsp. cayenne pepper; 3 green cardamom pods; 2 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste; ½ tsp. whole black peppercorns; 5 whole cloves; ¼ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg; 1 tsp. fennel seeds; 1 tsp. cumin seeds; 1 3″ piece ginger, peeled (1″ mashed into a paste and 2″ julienned, to garnish); 1 black cardamom pod; 1 cup canola oil; Naan bread, for serving (optional); 3 lamb shanks, halved crosswise (ask your butcher to do this); 1 medium yellow onion, very thinly sliced; 1 star anise; 1 stick cinnamon, halved; 2 tbsp. poppy seeds

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Soups and Stews

By The Editors of Saveur

Published 2015

About

The Pakistani recipe for dumbay ki nihari uses a home-blended garam masala for its defining sweet-spicy-bitter flavor profile. Nihari is derived from the Arabic word nahaar, or “day,” which makes sense considering the long, slow cooking required to tenderize the meat and coax the thickening agents from the lamb bones. The result is a robust stew brightened with cilantro, ginger, citrus, and chile.