To celebrate National Pie Week (March 7-13) we have teamed up with modern Indian restaurants, Kricket, to serve a Lamb Neck Nihari Pie special which will be available at The Grazing Goat, The Alfred Tennyson, The Thomas Cubitt and The Coach Makers Arms for the entirety of Pie Week. The suet crust pies will be filled with Kricket’s delicately spiced lamb curry filling enriched with bone marrow that has been smoked with coconut charcoal and ghee for added indulgence.
”Nahar’’ means morning, and Nihari was traditionally eaten by the Nawabs in the Mughal empire for breakfast before morning prayers. Designed to sustain for a day due to its energy boosting properties.
Usually made with mutton, and thickened with its marrow and wheat flour. We remove the flour and increase the richness of the dish with beef bone marrow that has been smoked with coconut charcoal and ghee.
The spice mix that goes into the masala is deep and complex, and in the overall dish you should be able to identify these spices. The flavours are spicy and rich!
Nihari masala
Carom seeds 1 tbls
Coriander seeds 4 tbls
Green cardamon 1 tbls
Cloves 2 tbls
Black cardamon 4 pieces
Indian bay leaf 2 pieces
Star anise 4 pieces
Black salt 1/4 tsp
Red Kashmiri chilli powder 1 tbls
Turmeric powder 1 tbls
Ginger powder 1 tsp
Nutmeg 1/4 tsp
Mace 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds 2 tbls
Fennel seeds 3 tbls
Smoked bone marrow
Beef bone marrow centre cut 1kg
Nihari
Ghee 100g
Diced lamb neck 1kg
Fried onions 100g
Ginger/garlic paste 150g
Garlic paste 75g
Split green chillies 20g
Red Kashmiri chilli powder 10g
Turmeric powder 5g
Water 1 litres
Nihari masala 30g
Compound butter
250g unsalted butter
Black mustard seeds 10g
Cumin seeds 5g
Dried Kashmiri chillies finely chopped 2.5g
Turmeric powder 2.5g
Fresh curry leaves 10g
Suet Pastry Base
350g self-raising flour
150g shredded vegetable suet
150ml ice cold water
2g fine sea salt
Rough Puff Pastry Top
300g unsalted butter
320g strong plain flour
150ml ice cold water
4g fine sea salt
Roast all the whole spices at 160 degrees celsius in the oven for 12 minutes, remove from the oven, add powdered spices and allow to cool completely. Blitz to a powder in a spice grinder.
Soak bone marrow in heavily salted water for 5 hours. Place bones on a perforated tray and place that on top a deeper tray. In the bottom one add white charcoal, two spoonfuls of ghee then place the bone marrow tray on top. Cover well with foil and smoke for 30 minutes.
Brown the lamb pieces off in ghee until caramelised and dark in colour. Remove any excess water/ghee in the process and set aside. Lift the browned lamb pieces out of the pan and to that same pan add the ginger/garlic paste, garlic paste and green chillies. Cook out for 5 minutes. Add the lamb back to the pot with the powdered spices and cook out for a further 5 minutes. Add the fried onions, the strained ghee/lamb fat mix from earlier and the water. Cook out until the lamb is tender and the curry has lost some moisture and the spices have split to form a red sheen of oil. Season with the nihari masala and salt. Add in the smoked bone marrow that has been scooped from the bone, and mix well.
For the compound butter temper the spices in very little oil, add to softened butter.
For the suet pastry base mix the flour, suet and salt and then mix in water to form a good, sturdy dough. Cover and chill until ready to roll.
To make the rough puff top, put the plain flour and salt into a bowl and dice the butter. Rub together to mix but there should still be small lumps of butter. Pour in the cold water and mix to combine to a firm dough, do not over mix.
Cover with cling film and place in the fridge.
Bringing it together
Chef Director, @ben.tish, sat down with @berberandq`s very own @chefjoshkatz to discuss how he came to food and what to expect from his Cubitt House Eats With supper series at @theorangepublichouse
Sep 10th @theorangepublichouse
Book via the link in our bio #CH #CubittHouse #CHEatsWith #JoshKatz