Nihari

Beef variety of Nihari in Karachi.

Nihari (Urdu: نہاری‎) is a stew from Pakistan, mostly consumed by the Muslim Punjabi people of the Lahore region. consisting of slow-cooked meat, mainly shank meat of beef or lamb and mutton, goat meat and chicken, along with bone marrow. It is flavored with long pepper (pippali), a relative of black pepper. It is considered as the "National Dish of Pakistan" respectively. Medically, Nihari is also used as a home remedy for fever, rhinorrhea and the common cold.

Name origin

Nihari comes from the Arabic nahaar (نهار‎), meaning "morning". It was originally eaten by Nawabs in the Mughal Empire as a breakfast item after their Islamic morning prayer of Fajr.

Popularity

Nihari is a traditional dish of Muslims of Delhi, Bhopal and Lucknow. After the Partition of British India and creation of Pakistan in 1947, many Urdu speaking Muslims from northern India migrated to Karachi and established restaurants. In Karachi, Nihari became a roaring success and soon was found all over Pakistan. Now Nihari is available in Pakistani restaurants around the world. A particular favorite is nalli nihari, which is made with marrow added to nihari, and makes the stew very rich. In some restaurants, a few kilos from each day's leftover Nihari is added to the next day's pot. This re-used portion of Nihari is called taar and is believed to provide the unique flavor. Some Nihari outlets in old Delhi boast of an unbroken taar going back more than a century.

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