Nalli Nihari Recipe In Instant Pot- Mutton Nihari

Nalli Nihari Recipe – Slow cooked lamb shank in the silky smooth gravy is something to die for. A true meat lover will swear by Nihari. Lamb nihari or Lamb shank curry takes time to cook, however the steps are not complicated, and tastes nothing short of awesome! Best part is that you can make this in Instant pot too, as well as on a normal pot. Mutton or lamb nihari is a true show stopper in any party menu.

Nihari

It is slow cooked meat, primarily it is goat, lamb or beef or even chicken sometimes, along with bone marrow. The process of slow cooking along with bone marrow gives it a distinct and delicious taste. The presence of bone marrow makes this lamb shank curry, really rich.

Origin and History

The word originates from arabic word “nahaar”, which implies morning. There is a belief that it was originally consumed by Nawabs in Mughal Empire as breakfast, following their morning prayers and hence the name “Nihari”.

The place of origin for this is either hyderabad (India) or Old Delhi. Following the success in Mughal cuisine, this became extremely popular with Muslims. At the time of separation of India, many muslims migrated to Pakistan and nihari became household name in Pakistan. As of now, if you wish to eat a good nihari outside in any restaurant, I will recommend trying in authentic Pakistani restaurant. In case you are in India, you can try this in authentic restaurants in Old Delhi, Hyderabad or Lucknow.

Nalli Nihari

Nalli is bone marrow. A nihari with “shank” or bone marrow is, nalli nihari. You may have heard, Nalli gosht, this is same as meat cooked with bone marrow.

If I be honest, I had not heard much of Nihari while I was in India, however thanks to my meat loving husband, I heard its name first time in 2012 or so. We have two close muslim family friends, and my husband will normally eat this lamb nihari at their place or in pakistani restaurants in London.

There are hundreds and thousands of nihari recipes on internet. Each one has some subtle variation to it. This nihari recipe is amalgamation of learnings I gathered by speaking to few chefs in Pakistani restaurants and my understanding of usage of Instant pot. This recipe has gone through rigorous test of taste by my critic husband, who is good in finding fault in any food! Now that he is happy with the recipe, he has tried it few times himself and his friends loved it too. (What a sigh of relief!).

Medication Value

Some people use Nihari as home remedy for fever and common cold. The sauce or curry has got medication value. It contains bone marrow along with cloves, cardamom, black pepper, fennel seeds, and all these provide immunity against common cold.

“Mutton Bone marrow” or mutton nalli, is a fantastic source of omega 3 fatty acid which has essential for efficient brain functioning.

Ingredients

There are two sets of ingredients which are required for this lamb shank curry, one is Nihari Masala and then other is rest of ingredients.

Nihari Masala

You can either buy readymade nihari masala or make fresh at home. I will recommend using fresh masala at home. Making this masala does not take much time either and nothing beats fresh homemade masala.

To make this masala you need

• Fennel seeds
• Coriander seeds
• Cumin seeds
• Black peppercorns
• Cinnamon stick
• Black and Green Cardamoms
• Bay leaves
• Star Anise
• Cloves
• Nutmeg and Mace powder

Other ingredients

You will need, lamb shanks, ghee, oil, ginger, garlic, all purpose flour or wheat flour, kashmiri red chilli powder, salt, cumin seeds, onion, and coriander.

How to make Nihari Masala

In a small pan, dry roast the following for few minutes

• 1.5 tablespoon Fennel seeds
• 1.5 tablespoon Coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon Cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon Black peppercorns
• 2 inch Cinnamon stick
• 2 Black Cardamom
• 5 Green Cardamom
• 2-3 Bay leaves
• 1-2 Star Anise
• 6-7 Cloves
• 1 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon Ground Mace

Let this cool and transfer them to a grinding jar. Blend it to a fine powder and keep aside. Your Nihari masala is ready.

Instant Pot Recipe to make Lamb or Mutton Nihari

• Switch on the instant pot and set it on for “sauté” mode. 
• Add ghee to it and once ghee is warm, add grated ginger and garlic. Sauté for 1-2 minutes until raw smell fades away. Add lamb shank pieces and sauté for 4-5 minutes.

• Add Kashmiri chilli powder, salt and the ground Nihari masala to it and sauté for 2 minutes till spice mixture is roasted well and lamb shanks are coated nicely and switch off the instant pot.

• Add 8 cups of water (if using instant pot) and mix well. Close the instant pot with lid and adjust the setting to “slow cook” mode for 2.5 hours.
• After that, open the lid and check if the shanks are cooked nicely. It should be really tender once you touch it with the spoon and comes off the bone easily. Now adjust the instant pot to “sauté” mode again.
• Sieve together all purpose flour and wheat flour. Take it in a bowl and add 1/2 cup of water.

• Mix well and add this to the cooking Nihari pot. Sauté for 2-3 minutes so that there are no lumps formed and let Nihari cook for 10-12 minutes more.
• Heat another pan over medium flame and add oil to it. Once oil gets warm, add cumin seeds and let it crackle. Add sliced onions and sauté till they are golden and now add chopped green chillies and ginger julienne and sauté for 1 minute.
• Switch off the heat and subsequently transfer this tempering to cooking Nihari. Mix well and switch off the heat.
• Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander and lemon wedges.

How to make Nihari in normal pan or handi

To make nihari in normal pot or pan or handi the process is largely same. There are minor tweaks to the recipe (you can find that in recipe card inline).

• Keep the heat to lowest when adding lamb shanks.
• Use 10 cups of water to add to for handi and let it cook with lid covered for 2.5 hour on sim / lowest heat setting.

Point to note here is that Instant Pot needs on “slow cook” mode where as normal cooking requires heat on lowest setting. Instant post requires less water as compared to normal pot.

Pro Tips

• Slow cooking is the key in this recipe, hence don’t rush up. Yes, everyone wants quick recipes, but the true taste comes from slow cooking in this case. Plan ahead and ensure to put the nihari to cook on slow heat, whilst you do other things.
• Using all purpose flour/wheat flour in the recipe gives silky texture with thickening, hence you can use any of them or both combined.
• I used both ghee and oil in my recipe, however you can use any whatever available. This tastes best when cooked in ghee.
• Look for fresh tender spring lamb shank for tastiest nalli nihari.
• Make this a day in advance and it will taste even better. There are restaurants which re-use left over nihari (also called taar) is next day’s cooking, as it offers distinctly delicious flavour.
• You can use this recipe for beef, goat and chicken too. Note that with chicken the cooking time will reduce to 1.5hrs maximum, as chicken cooks really fast.
• You can make nihari masala in advance and keep it ready whenever you need it. This way, all you need to do is, just slow cook nihari, which is really simple.
• If using normal pan to make this, look for deep pan, such as handi.

This Nihari Is

• True show stopper on any dinning table. The silky smooth gravy with the rich taste from bone marrow and tender meat is something any meat lover will crave for!
• Takes times to make, however is worth all the wait.
• Though this recipe takes time, it is fairly straight forward recipe and you make make nihari in instant pot or normal pan.
• Tastes great as soon as its ready, however it tastes heavenly next day.

Storage suggestion

You can keep this stored under refrigeration for 2-3 days, however if you wish to freeze it, you can keep it frozen for 3 months easily.

When de-frosting, let this come to room temperature and then re-heat on low heat, ideally in a pan, but can use micro-wave too. Once its defrosted, do not re-freeze again.

Serving suggestion

Garnish this lamb shank curry with lemon slices and ginger juliennes and serve this nihari piping hot along with any Indian bread, ideally roti or naan, or can serve with plain steamed rice too.

Other Lamb Recipes

If you have taste buds for lamb or mutton, you would likely love some of these lamb curries

Achari Gosht

Handi Gosht

Lamb Rogan Josh

Lamb Chettinad

Recipe Card