The Perfect Pantry posted a slow cooker recipe for nihari, which is a curry from Pakistan. It also has the nickname of “old clothes”, which is what the beef brisket looks like when you pull the meat apart with forks after hours of cooking .
Recipe for Pakistani “old clothes” beef curry (nihari) in the slow cooker
I made this dish twice. It is super simple and I think they got got the spices correct. However, I have a few ideas on making this even better.
- Swap out the canola oil for either a slab of butter or ghee. The canolification of Indian cooking sickens me.
- Cut the garlic requirement in half, unless you really like garlic.
- Instead of cooking for 9 hours on low, I cooked it for 5 1/2 hours with just the first hour on high. BTW, that is a trick I use with most slow cooking recipes. Cooking for 9 full hours will certainly have the meat melting in your mouth, but I don’t mind a little bit of chewing. Plus I subscribe to the theory that we shouldn’t be over cooking our proteins.
Beef Brisket Curry
Greg Linster
Jul 30, 2012 — 11:14 am
Thanks for sharing this. I’m going to give this recipe a go tomorrow. Do you think a sirloin tip roast will work for the meat?
MAS
Jul 30, 2012 — 11:22 am
@Greg – Not sure. The key to this recipe is being able to shred the meat like “old clothes” and then return the meat to the slow cooker. I’m looking at photos of sirloin tip now and it doesn’t appear to have that texture.
dhammy
Jul 31, 2012 — 5:46 am
Made this last night and it was wonderful! The whole family enjoyed it… although the wife complained that it was a bit too spicy for her. Perhaps a little less chili powder next time.
D
MAS
Jul 31, 2012 — 7:38 am
@dhammy – Excellent. I have the heat content in chili powders varies wildly. I have this powder I got from a Indian grocery store in LA that is ridiculously hot. One half a teaspoon of it is equal to 2 or 3 tablespoons of most chili powders.
TigerAl
Sep 15, 2012 — 9:25 am
@MAS: You probably got some Kashmiri chili powder.. it is hot, delicious and has a beautiful red color.
MAS
Sep 15, 2012 — 6:45 pm
@TigerAl – You might be right. I don’t recall any detail on the label. I’ve since transferred it to a glass jar.