In Pakistan, It’s Mutton Season All Year Round

Why you should be cooking mutton and a recipe for aloo gosht

If you have been following my work, you will know that my mother loves mutton. Since my father doesn’t eat red meat at home, she would wait for me to visit to make it, every day. Last year, when I traveled across Pakistan for my cookbook, I realized she wasn’t the only one obsessed with it. The rest of Punjab is too.

Punjabis will find a way to pair mutton with anything - greens, cauliflower, turnips, okra, green beans, lentils, taro, flowers – and the beauty of mutton is that it always works. It has the rare ability of absorbing other ingredients in a one-pot dish, letting them shine while still maintaining its own signature taste.  

Many home cooks wanted to share mutton recipes with me, and unfortunately, I could not include all the ones I sourced in my upcoming book. Some, like my grandmother’s aloo gosht – mutton with potatoes – were left out. But given the dish is such a satiating staple in so many Pakistani homes, I tweaked the recipe a bit and am sharing it here.

It turns out that the sub-continent is not the only region where mutton is popular. While the claim that goat is the most widely consumed meat in the world has been debunked (it’s actually pork), it is still a key component of many cuisines including African, Middle Eastern, Caribbean and of course, South Asian.

When I traveled to India, contrary to the increasingly circulated myth that it is a vegetarian country, my hosts were always keen to serve their Pakistani guest, “non-veg,” which nearly always meant there was a mutton dish in the mix. Goat meat is still popular in India as in Nepal and Bangladesh where like Pakistan, it’s folded in a variety of richly spiced curries, that as a Pakistani are both familiar and different.

Goat is high-protein and low-fat but many are intimidated by it because it’s tough, and to some, gamey. While in Pakistan, it’s more affordable than beef, in the US, it can be difficult and expensive to source it. But if you find a neighborhood Caribbean or South Asian grocery store that carries high-quality goat meat, I would urge you to give it a try. How do you know if it’s high-quality goat meat? Unfortunately, it’s a process of trial and error, and getting to know your vendor or butcher. It helps when you can select the cut. In Pakistan, chest is premier but shoulder also does the trick. In Manila, while I was able to source my choice of cut cheaply from the “halal butcher guy,” the meat was routinely tough because he was serving older goats. I sound like a Disney villain for saying this out loud but you want them young! For mid-quality goat meat, it can take 60 to 90 minutes to tenderize the meat. If it’s a younger goat, it decreases to 30 to 45 minutes. But even if the cooking process takes time, the recipes themselves are quite straightforward. Master one, and you are ready to tackle the rest.

Some Mutton Curries to Consider

On the blog, I have shared two delicious iterations of mutton curries. Palak gosht, my Islamabad home cook, Shahnza’s recipe for mutton with spinach, is one of my favorites. Slow-cooked spinach (you can also include mustard greens in the mix) adds incredible depth to the curry. It’s also a sneaky and delicious way to sneak your greens in. I also love the gobi gosht recipe shared by academic, Dr. Mariam Durrani, in which the richness of the mutton helps bring the cauliflower florets to life. If you are an Instant Pot enthusiast, I have adapted that one for the electric pressure cooker to help bring down the cooking time.  

One of my favorite Pakistani food blogs, Fatima Cooks, has a truly spectacular variety of goat curries on her blog. I especially have my eye on a couple of childhood favorites, dal gosht (mutton with lentils), and shaljam gosht (mutton with turnips). I especially love the latter because the slow-cooked, sweetened turnips are a lovely complement to the savoriness of the mutton.

The aloo gosht (mutton with potatoes) variation that I have shared at the bottom of the post is one that I would greatly enjoy having during the fall and winter in the US. It has more gravy than the other two recipes on the blog, which makes it reminiscent of a heartwarming stew, and easy to pair with rice (although I really do love mine with roti). Hope you’ll give it a try.

What Have I Been Up To?

Book, book, book.

The final manuscript for my upcoming cookbook, Pakistan: Recipes and Stories from the Country’s Home Kitchens, Restaurants and Roadside Stands, is finally in. The book will be out in the world on March 4, 2025 but I will be sharing an update about pre-ordering it very soon. I hope that you will help spread the word for Pakistan’s first major cookbook (woah!)

I’m also excited to announce that I have a new column, Not a Recipe Column, up at Dunya Digital. Check out my piece, Are We Better Cooks Than Our Mothers (And Grandmothers?) in which I explore the hubbub around our mother and grandmother’s cooking, and how Gen X and millennial women frequently get left out of the conversation.

In terms of reading, I needed to take a break from food. I’m deep in the middle of Patricia Evangelista’s searing portrayal of Duterte’s drug war, Some People Need Killing; and also started Rooney’s Intermezzo. Both are very good.

I will also be turning my attention back to the blog, which is looking incredibly dated and clunky. If you still enjoy cooking from it, I would love it if you can take a minute to leave a starred review of the recipes you enjoy since that really helps boost the website’s ranking.

Thank you once again for sticking around. Here’s a recipe.

Aloo Gosht (Mutton with Potatoes) Recipe

Ingredients

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 medium yellow onion, halved and very thinly sliced in half rings

1 1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 1/2 teaspoon crushed ginger

2 bird’s eye chiles, half slit

1 pound and 1 ounce (1/2 kilogram) bone-in mutton, cut in 1 1/2 to 2-inch pieces

1 1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste

2 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

2 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

12 ounces (about 350 grams) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, halved and sliced in 1 1/2 – 2-inch pieces

1/4 teaspoon garam masala (optional)

Preparation

Heat oil over medium-low heat in a heavy bottomed-pot. Add onions and fry until translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Add crushed garlic and ginger, and bird’s eye chiles. Stir frequently until they stop smelling raw.

Increase heat to medium, and fold in the mutton and half of the salt. Fry until evenly browned, about 5 minutes.

Add red chili powder, turmeric, coriander and cumin powder, and stir until the mutton is well-coated in the spices. Keep stirring until the oil begins to separate from the spices. Add a splash of water to deglaze the pan if needed.

Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of water until the mutton is covered 1/3^rd of the way. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Let the mutton cook on medium-low heat until tender, about 1 hour. If it’s getting too dry, add water, 1/4 cup at a time, and stir occasionally to make sure the meat is not sticking to the pan.

Once the meat breaks easily with a fork, remove lid and bring heat to medium-high. Stir frequently until the oil separates from the spices, and excess water has evaporated.

Fold in the chopped potatoes and remaining salt, and fry on medium heat, stirring frequently, to make sure they are evenly coated in the mutton curry.  

Add 2 cups of water and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover with a tight-fitting lid, and let the curry cook on medium-low heat until the potatoes break easily with a fork, 20 to 30 minutes. Check for salt and adjust as needed.

Remove from heat and transfer to serving dish. If using, dust with garam masala for a slightly smoky finish. Serve with roti or plain basmati rice.