Lahore Snaps IX: Home Cookin’

by sepoy on February 4, 2009 · 23 comments

in homistan

I just got back and the first thing I missed this morning was breakfast. I don’t normally have breakfast – more of a cup of coffee and go kinda personality. But at home, home home (whatever that means or is meant to mean), I revert to some indeterminate age wherein I used to have three meals a day, plus chai, plus snacks.

The funny thing is that I don’t seem to remember any age when I was a breakfast kind by choice.

So my usual is a paratha + tea.
Paratha

And sometimes a baqarkhani + green tea.
Baqarkhani

Another option, not to be taken lightly, is Sri Pa’ie, i.e. Goat Feet.
Pa'ie

And the final, typical Lahori, option is Biryani.
Biryani

Lunches can be slightly lighter – considering.

Spinach is an old favorite.
Spinach

Karhi, as well.
Karhi

Chukander or Beets makes all kinds of things red.
Beet

The stuffed paratha (stuffed with anything from meat to potato to meat and potato).
Stuffed Paratha

There is the Kebab and Naan option.
Chapali Kebabs (Baby)

Naan

But nothing, and I mean nothing, can beat the good old daal roti.
Daal Roti

For reasons that you will soon learn, we had Lots of Goat to eat.

Hence, Goat spiced.
Goat

Leg of Goat (Amma burned her hand during this)
Leg o Goat

Some more Goat.
Goat

And some extra Goat.
Goat

And some Goat Pulaoo.
Pulaoo

And some Goat with Turnip.
Turnip

There was even some Goat Intestine aka Ojaris that I did not, I repeat, did not touch.
Intestines

Funny story about them ojaris. In me youth, there was some furniture that I thought was immovable next to our dining table. For a good long while, I would chuck whatever I did not enjoy eating (ojari, anything green) behind that furniture when my Amma was not looking. I would have a clean plate and a good reputation. Except when it came time to move, and the movers moved the furniture. Anyways.

One can end it all with some amazing Carrot halwa.
Carrot Halwa

All food courtesy of the extraordinary chef that is my dearest mother.

{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }

1 omar ali February 4, 2009 at 5:07 pm

Mouth wateringly good. I wish I was back in lahore for a few days….

2 Red February 4, 2009 at 5:26 pm

I think I just drooled over my keyboard.

3 sarahjane February 4, 2009 at 5:27 pm

omg i am dying over here! YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

4 elizabeth February 4, 2009 at 5:33 pm

oh yum.

having had the great pleasure of eating at that table, I second the adjective “extraordinary”–sepoy’s Amma is the best cook I met in homistan. oh those kababs, and the gajjar halwa! also there was some channa dish that was magic. I am very hungry now.

(also: my younger sister employed your ojari-disposal strategy with vitamins as a child–as we discovered when we moved the couch to catch a mouse one of the cats had brought in, and found eighty-some pairs of chewable flintstone vitamins nearly tucked beneath the rim…)

5 Buster February 4, 2009 at 5:38 pm

OK, goat with turnip–I want the recipe. I love both but I’ve never had them together. Willingness to share?

6 Salman Javaid February 4, 2009 at 5:38 pm

manaan bhai….. Ure reminding me of amma !!!! I miss all such food items that she used to cook for me back home in lahore…. Too bad I didn’t like the Goat stuff a lot but still was Delicious with a capital D…..
Long live Amma…. Amen

7 Szerelem February 4, 2009 at 5:43 pm

oh good lord. I want to eat all that, sigh.

Though off topic moong dal halwa >>> gajjar halwa. And what do you have against ojaris?

8 Robina February 4, 2009 at 7:32 pm

Such delicious food!!! It can seduce anyone’s palate. Am going to Lahore in March, can’t wait. Was great to see these pics. Thnx for posting.

9 Zack February 4, 2009 at 8:48 pm

I can never understand how Lahoris can have such a heavy breakfast.

Were you there for Eid or was there an aqeeqa?

10 biryanilady February 5, 2009 at 3:15 am

it is not at all acceptable to post such luscious lajawab-food photos without a recipe, or two, or seven. Not.At.All.

11 Desi Italiana February 5, 2009 at 3:26 am

Supersize all of this, please.

12 Desi Italiana February 5, 2009 at 3:30 am

That kadhi looks damn good (NB: Gujarati kadhi is sans the big chunks of besan in contrast to the Punjabi one).

And the dishes are prepared in such an aesthetically pleasing display!

One question, if you know the answer: how many goats went into making those dishes?

13 sepoy February 5, 2009 at 5:45 am

DI: If you click on the Image ( to FLickr), you can supersize all of them.

More on Goats soon.

On the recipe front, I will see what someone else can do.

14 Another Damned Medie February 5, 2009 at 6:39 am

mmmmmmmm ….. goat! mmmmmmm …. dal for breakfast. Except that I only have a murgh makhni and something with aubergine. And none of it looks as good as goat.

15 desiknitter February 5, 2009 at 7:42 am

Please please post your Amma’s kadhi recipe! I love Punjabi kadhi and the subtle variations that so many families have in their recipes. Also the chukander.
The kebabs look fab, even to this non-red-meat eater.
I totally know what you mean about the sudden ability to eat seven large meals in a day. Most mysterious…

16 Jonathan Dresner February 5, 2009 at 11:13 am

My parents do that — not cook great Indian, but take pictures of their food when they’re traveling. Lovely, lovely stuff.

Now all we need is that next-generation peripheral to make the browsing experience complete: iAroma environmental adaptor….

17 Jonathan Dresner February 5, 2009 at 11:13 am

Sorry, not “Indian”: homistani.

I suppose, though, that mid-American Jewish is my homistani quisine….

18 raver February 5, 2009 at 11:48 am

I want some of your amma’s karhi with the yummy pakoras all floating in yogurty besany goodness.

19 Baraka February 5, 2009 at 12:14 pm

You’re killing me, man, killing me.

My stomach is rumbling and I am longing for a paratha and chai for brekkie. Alas, it is yogurt and fresh fruit for me, the quintessential SF brekkie which pales in comparison to all this ghee-laden fineness.

*sigh*

20 hemlock March 1, 2009 at 5:31 am

how long were you visiting after? im assuming you returned from perdais after a long time – hence the lavish dasterkhwan?

let it be know, you are envied. i miss real food. real desi food. real homemade desi food.
*sigh*

21 Amit Julka May 26, 2010 at 1:13 am

slurrrrrrp…

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