Aloo gosht is the salan that turns up on weeknight tables across Punjab on both sides of the Wagah line — bone-in mutton and potatoes loosened into a thin tomato-and-onion shorba, eaten with roti when the gravy is thick and with rice when it runs. It is everyday food, not feast food: the cut is whatever the butcher has, the spicing is the plain household set of turmeric, chilli, coriander and cumin, and the dish rests on bhunai — the patient frying-down of onion, masala and meat until the fat separates and the raw edge is gone. The potatoes go in late so they take on the meat’s flavour without dissolving into the pot. This version comes not from a home kitchen we cooked in but from the Pakistani food writer Maryam Jillani, who set down her grandmother’s slow-cooked Punjabi aloo gosht on her site Pakistan Eats and later in her 2025 book Pakistan — an English-language record of a recipe that usually passes by word of mouth, ammi to daughter, and is rarely written down at all.
INGREDIENTS
- 700 g bone-in mutton (goat or lamb, cut into 2-inch pieces)
- 3 medium waxy potatoes (peeled and halved)
- 4 tbsp ghee or neutral oil
- 2 large onions (finely sliced)
- 1 tbsp ginger paste
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
- 3 medium tomatoes (puréed)
- 3 tbsp plain yogurt (whisked)
- 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
- 1½ tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1½ tsp salt (plus more to taste)
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 1 black cardamom pod
- 1 small cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 2 green chillies (slit)
- a handful of coriander leaves (chopped)
METHOD
- Warm the ghee in a heavy pot and fry the cardamoms and cinnamon for a few seconds until they sputter.
- Add the onions and fry over medium heat until deep golden, 10–12 minutes — this colour is the base of the gravy.
- Stir in the ginger and garlic pastes and cook for a minute, until the raw smell goes.
- Add the meat and fry on high heat until sealed and browned at the edges, 5–6 minutes.
- Lower the heat, add the puréed tomato, yogurt, Kashmiri chilli, red chilli, coriander, cumin, turmeric and salt, and fry this masala down until the oil separates and pools, 12–15 minutes.
- Pour in about 500ml hot water, bring to a simmer, then cover and cook on low until the meat is nearly tender — 50–60 minutes for goat, less for lamb.
- Slide in the potatoes and cook, covered, until the meat and potatoes are soft and the shorba has thickened, 20–25 minutes more.
- Stir through the garam masala and slit green chillies, adjust the salt, and rest off the heat for 5 minutes.
- Scatter with coriander and serve with roti for a thicker gravy or rice for a thinner one.
