Shinwari sensation: Tikka to drive your taste buds wild

[ghazi52]

Shinwari sensation: Tikka to drive your taste buds wild

Namak Mandi offers delicious eating with salt of the earth seating.
PESHAWAR: For locals in the city and many people across Pakistan, Namak Mandi is synonymous with mouthwatering tikka karahi and other tasty barbecued meats, the likes of which cannot be found anywhere else.

Unlike many other popular restaurants, you will not find any air-conditioned halls in Namak Mandi.





Even decent seating is hard to come by, but despite this, people from Punjab and even farther down the country come here in large numbers, often with their families, and even in the sweltering summer months.

Although there are many shops in Namak Mandi, the man holding the skewers is almost always a Shinwari tribesman – unsurprising for those who know that tikka karahi and mutton barbecue are considered Shinwari specialties around Landi Kotal, where the tribe is largely settled.

There are stories that Shinwari people cook mutton in three different ways, with barbecue reserved for camel herders, as Shinwari people have a history as traders and transporters, travelling across Central Asia as well as the sub-continent with the hardy beasts of burden.

They used to travel along trans-Afghanistan roads to Central Asia and Kashghar, as well as Bukhara and other cities in search of merchandise.





“My grandfather used to tell me that Shinwari camel herders were the only people who would eat sheep meat and local Peshawaris would laugh at them because they thought that these highlanders were out of their minds.

In the subcontinent, goat meat was always recommended because it was easier to digest and there is a saying that every body part of a goat you eat strengthens the same part of the human body,” said Shad Muhammad Shinwari.

“Namak Mandi was the main salt market in Peshawar, and salt was transported by camel caravans managed by Shinwari people, so some Shinwari tribesmen established a few stalls to sell mutton to their compatriots,” said Shad Muhammad, who works as a cook at one of the local restaurants.

He explained that when some adventurous locals tried the food, they discovered how delicious it was, and ever-so slowly, a food market emerged which is now referred to as Namak Mandi.

“If you are a guest in Peshawar and someone says, ‘Let’s go to Namak Mandi’, it simply means that you are invited to a dinner or lunch,” he added.





“The salt market and days of trade caravans are long gone, but their legacy has survived in the shape of these mutton dishes,” he said, adding that the work also pays reasonably well – he makes Rs1,000 a day.

“The food at Namak Mandi is somewhat expensive, costing Rs1,000 per kilogram, but when you compare it with Chinese restaurants or others eateries with high-end food, it is quite reasonable,” said Fawad Ahmad, a local who seeks to dine at Namak Mandi at least once a week.

“My principles in life are really simple. Work well, eat well and sleep well. I come to Namak Mandi alone once a week and order half a kilo of meat in a Karahi, which is sufficient enough to feed a man,” he said, adding that in the past, there used to be a unique dry fruit-based chutney available only in Namak Mandi, but it has gotten hard to find because people were reluctant to pay for it separately, despite its great taste.

Of note is the fact that most of the diners on-site are not locals.

 

[ghazi52]

“You know what they say about Lahoris and their love for good food, so it’s no wonder that we would come to Peshawar just to eat at Namak Mandi. I know others who come here with their families and stay in five-star hotels with just one item on the agenda – to eat at Namak Mandi. I have not seen anything like this mutton karahi anywhere in Pakistan or even abroad,” Farmanullah, a resident of Lahore, told The Express Tribune.

“Namak Mandi is so famous that we are often contacted to send our cooks out to Islamabad and other cities to prepare food at big events, despite the fact that it is very expensive,” said Nasir, who owns one of the restaurants.

He said that anyone interested in preparing a tasty mutton tikka karahi should know that the local breeds of sheep in the mountainous areas of Fata and other parts of K-P are particularly suitable for it.

“The Balkhi sheep have more meat, but our local Watani sheep taste the best, so keep that in mind before judging the taste of mutton available at Namak Mandi and other places.

One other thing to be noted is that we only slaughter ram, and the age of the animal is also important as the meat of a lamb is easier to cook,” he added.





Another local, Wahid Khan, told The Express Tribune that whenever they try to cook the mutton at home, it tastes different.

“When these restaurant owners slaughter a ram, it is not washed with water at any stage as it is believed that it would take away the taste. Similarly, it is cooked in its own fats, traditionally without any spices or even tomatoes, but these days visitors from Punjab insist on adding tomatoes and red chilies,” he informed, saying that with the passage of time, some restaurant owners had started using cooking oil, and this was why the taste was ‘just not the same’.

“Contrary to common belief, Landi Kotal is the actual hub of mutton karahi. The karahi in Landi Kotal tastes far superior to that in Namak Mandi because they always select local breeds of sheep and they only cook the meat in its own tallow, which we call lam,” he explained.

Shinwari tribesmen cook the meat in at least three different ways – simple barbecue, dam pukht, and karahi, adding that dam pukht is rarely found in Namak Mandi these days.

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[jamahir]

Yum yum.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

Holy cow.... Blasphemy

 

[Areesh]

MashaAllah

Such kind of food is heaven. Seriously.

 

[Skywalker]

Wow I missed that food, spent lot of time travelling back n forth to Peshawar.

 

[fitpOsitive]

Yar try Tikka of Charsi....Lush...

 

[Lucky Breeze]

East or west Miranshah's namkeen gosht is the best.

 

[ghazi52]

Landi Kotal Shinwari Style Karhai Chicken



Shinwari Karhai Chicken



In Pakistan and India there are endless recipes for varieties of karhai dishes. This particular recipe is a prototypical specimen of the karhai chicken of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, the 'original' karhai chicken. You will find this sort of karhai chicken or karhai gosht in Peshawar's Namak Mandi, and it is named along with meat tikka and kabaab as one of the famous dishes of the Pashtoon tribes of the entire Frontier region. This recipe in particular is based on the Landi Kotal style karhai of the Shinwari tribe of Pashtoons. It is known in Pakistan for being highly delicious while containing no ground dried spices besides black pepper. Green chiles and juicy ripe tomatoes give this dish its unique and clean flavor. It makes its appearance on Pakistani restaurant menus and in wedding catering as Shinwari karhai. I had this style of karhai in North West Pakistan, as well as at an open air Pashtoon restaurant in Karachi, and I have always been intrigued by its delicious simplicity. Recently, I had this style of karhai chicken at the DC Metro area's notoriously tasty Ravi Kabob restaurant. Though Ravi Kabob is owned by Punjabis and the cooks are all from Mexico and Central America, the taste of their karhai chicken is exactly like what I remember eating in the Frontier restaurants. It's probably the best and most authentically Frontier style karhai chicken I have eaten outside of Pakistan. I felt inspired to do some deep research in attempt to replicate what I had eaten there and in Pakistan. Here is what I have come up with. My husband says it tastes spot on like Frontier style karhai, and he insists that it is even better than Ravi Kabob's famous karhai chicken.


1 chicken, skinless, bone-in cut into 2 inch pieces (ask for karhai cut from halal desi butcher)
5-6 whole green chiles, slit
1 tbs ginger-garlic paste
2-3 tomatoes roughly pureed
2 tomatoes cut into medium chunks
1 tsp salt or to taste-should be nicely salted
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbs lime juice
1 tbs ginger cut into long thin slivers ( finely julienned)
1/2 cup cilantro chopped
1/2 cup or so oil (traditionally this dish is made very rich with an excessive amount of oil)

In a karhai or deep cooking pot heat oil. Add slit green chiles and stir until they begin to color. Remove chiles from oil with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add in ginger-garlic paste. When this turns golden, add in chicken pieces. Stir on high heat, allowing chicken to brown a bit. When the chicken has got some color, add in the tomato puree. Add in the salt. Stir around for about five minutes, allowing the tomatoes to break down a bit and release their water, but not long enough for the water to dry up. Add in the tomato chunks, stir, and cover with a lid. Lower heat and allow chicken to cook for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the chicken is cooked, turn up heat and stir for a few moments more, adding in the black pepper. Turn off the heat. You should have a semi-dry gravy laden with tomato chunks, with quite a bit of oil floating on top. The trick is to cook the chicken through while still leaving some rawness in the tomatoes so that they remain wet and red. They should not fully break down in the gravy and darken as in a typical 'curry.' Now, stir in your lime juice, half of your ginger shards, half of your cilantro, and all of your chiles. Garnish the top with the remaining ginger and cilantro.


*A lighter alternative: Although bone in meat is traditional for karhai chicken, for health purposes, this recipe can be adapted to use with chicken breasts cut into large cubes. (Say, 2 inch cubes, or to your preference.) The cooking time of the chicken will be significantly reduced, as it is important not to overcook boneless breast meat. This will affect the time allowed for the tomatoes to break down and dry up. To adapt, brown chicken breasts in the oil after adding ginger-garlic paste as described above. Next, stir in roughly pureed tomatoes and salt. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or so until your cubed chicken breast is fully cooked through. Using tongs, remove chicken breast cubes from the gravy and set aside. Now, allow the tomato gravy to cook down and dry out a bit more, about 10 minutes on medium heat with occasional stirring. You may need to use a splatter screen. When the gravy has dried up a bit but is still a bit wet and red, add in the tomato chunks. Allow this to cook for 5 minutes more, mashing the chunks down a little bit. When the gravy is of the correct consistency, turn up the heat and stir the chicken cubes back into the gravy. Add in the black pepper and proceed with the above recipe instructions, adding in the finishing touches on the dish.


Shinwari Karhai Chicken made with chicken breast

Serve with fresh hot naan.

Krazy for karhai?

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[JohnyD]

what is more popular in Pak, beef tikka or chicken tikka?

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

what is more popular in Pak, beef tikka or chicken tikka?

Lamb
Beef
Chicken

Chicken is consumed mostly because it's cheaper.

 

[JohnyD]

Lamb
Beef
Chicken

Chicken is consumed mostly because it's cheaper.

and may be it is quicker to make as well....I think if cooked slowly and nicely, mutton (goat, lamb, beef, pork etc red meats) tikka would be a heaven to ones taste buds! ...I hear at some places, chefs first half boil mutton then leave it marinated in refrigerator, they remove the required quantity and then put it in oven briefly to give it roasted smell and taste...not authenticate but makes sense in city life style.

 

[Musalman]

I dunno about other areas of Pakistan but in Punjab due to shinwari phenomenal success our taste buds are changing from lal mirch to black pepper and salt

 

[313ghazi]

The next time I go to Pakistan I want to visit Peshawar and Multan. The list was just Multan before I read this post.

 

[ghazi52]

Karahi gosht is said to be a dish of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as NWFP). In the city of Peshawar, and its surrounding areas, meat rules supreme.

Historically speaking, lamb and goat meat (mutton) has always been favoured in South Asia, Middle East, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean. Perhaps it was it’s availability or size that made it the animal of choice to be hunted as a quick and easy dinner, or the fact that goat and lamb meat is deliciously tender and juicy.

Curry, A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors is a fabulous narrative of South Asian cuisine and the charming tales associated with its evolution:

At a garden party at Khyber in the 1920’s, a British civil servant sampled the sort of [goat] kebabs Babar would have eaten in the early 16th century. The local Afridis, a warlike nomadic mountain people, had invited the British to watch a display of guns, fireworks, and an exhibition of how they attack in enemy’s position. An old Afridi came up and offered a lump of sheep’s flesh freshly roasted in [tomatoes]. These had to be pulled off and eaten with the fingers.
It is believed that the ruling Mughul’s hearty appetite for beef, lamb and goat clashed with the dietary habits of many of their subjects in the subcontinent. But the mountain people of Afghanistan and the Khyber were used to the hearty meat-based diet of the nomadic shepherds of the region.

The warrior nature of the Pukhtuns and some of the other Muslims in the mountainous region accentuated the consumption of the undomesticated animal, and vegetarianism was considered the diet of the people of the plains.

Lizzie Collingham, a historian opines;

The consumption of meat was associated with strength and valor. It was considered that environmental essences contained in the soil were transferred from plants and then into herbivores, which in turn were eaten by carnivores. Each transference created a more powerful distillation of essences. Meat was thus the most intense of foods.
How did the traditional lamb karahi come to be? My research pointed me to Landi Kotal, a rustic and traditionally Pukhtun town, sitting close to Afghanistan atop the Khyber Pass.

The Shinwari and Afridi tribes hail from this region and it is also considered to be the historical home of the balti or karahi gosht.

The karahi gosht is named after the utensil it is cooked in. The baltiand karahi (the cooking utensil balti is referred to as karahi in southern Pakistan) are a somewhat similar heavy-based, round, wok-like pot.

From Landi Kotal, the delicious balti gosht travelled to Punjab and then the rest of the world.

The mutton karahi essentially consists of small cubes of lamb or goat, which are cooked in tomatoes, green chillie, salt and preferably animal fat. The fresh meat is thought to provide the fat base for the cooking, and it is meant to be savoured directly from the karahi with a side of hot naan.