What is Shinwari Karahi?

A dish from the Khyber Pass

Shinwari karahi takes its name from the Shinwari tribe of the Khyber region, where roadside karahi houses cook mutton over open fires for truckers and travellers. The recipe is famously short: meat, animal fat or ghee, tomatoes, green chillies, salt and sometimes a little ginger. No onion, no garam masala, no yoghurt.

Because so little is added, the quality of the mutton and the heat of the fire decide everything. The meat is seared hard in its own fat first, then tomatoes go in and are cooked down until the oil separates and clings to the pieces.

How it differs from a Lahori karahi

A Lahori karahi leans on a fuller masala: ginger-garlic paste, cumin, coriander seed, crushed red chilli and often a finish of yoghurt or cream. It is darker, thicker and more aromatic. Shinwari karahi is paler, oilier in the good sense, and tastes mostly of meat, tomato and chilli.

If you like your food layered with spice, order Lahori. If you want to taste the mutton itself, Shinwari is the one.

A Lahori karahi leans on a fuller masala: ginger-garlic paste, cumin, coriander seed, crushed red chilli and often a finish of yoghurt or cream. It is darker, thicker and more a…

How to eat it

Shinwari karahi is eaten with fresh naan or roghni naan, tearing bread to scoop meat and the tomato-fat gravy. A side of sliced onion with lemon cuts through the richness. Rice is not traditional with it, though nobody will stop you.

Our mutton Shinwari karahi is listed with two prices. Ask our staff which portion suits your table rather than assuming the sizes.