Cuisine of Pakistan

At its simplest, Pakistani cooking today consists of staple foods which are cheap and abundant. Wheat and other flour products is the mainstay of the diet, one familiar form being CHAPATI, unleavened bread akin to a Mexican tortilla. This is made with dough prepared from whole wheat flour. Another basic food is LASSI, milk from which curds and butterfat have been removed. Vegetables, usually seasonal, lentils are commonly used. Families with larger incomes eat more meat eggs, and fruits. And the more affluent cook with GHEE, which is clarified butter, instead of with vegetable oil. From the earliest times, the imaginative - and sometimes heavy - use of spices, herbs, seeds, and flavorings and seasonings have helped cooks transform rather ordinary staple foods into an exotic cuisine. Consider some of the most common of these in wide use in Pakistan today: chilli powder, turmeric, garlic, paprika, black pepper, red pepper, cumin seed, bay leaf, coriander, cardamom, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, mace, nutmeg, poppy seeds, aniseed, almonds, pistachios, and yogurt. Their use in a wide range of pickles, chutneys, preserves, and sauces, together with curries of all descriptions and special treatment for meats, sea, food, vegetables and lentils, gives Pakistani cooking much of its distinctive character. Cultural influences, whether religious precepts, practices, and ceremonies or local traditions, or even esthetic preferences, have made their contribution toward the evolution of Pakistani cuisine. Food and The Moghul Emperors A style of cookery called Moghlai’ evolved at the Moghul court and even today it remains centered in Lahore. Some latter-day and widely known survivors of court cookery are, for example, chicken tandoori, a dish in which chicken is cooked at low temperatures in special ovens called TANDOORS, and murgh musallum’ in which the whole chickens are roasted with special spices and ingredients. SHAHI TUKRA, a dessert of sliced bread, milk, cream, sugar and saffron, is another left-over from the days of the Moghuls. Fruit drinks, squeezed from pomegranates, apples, melons, and mangoes, and called SHARBAT, are an important part of the Moghlai cuisine and, indeed, the inspiration for American “sherberts.” Ceremonial occasions such as weddings have inspired a number of fancy dishes. A traditional dish at marriage feasts, for example, is chicken curry with either PILAU or Biryani. Firini, made from cream of rice and milk, is an equally traditional wedding dessert. It is served in clay saucers topped by silver foil.