Paye (Paya)
A trotter curry with a real history as resourceful, low-cost cooking, turning an inexpensive cut into a beloved Punjab and Karachi breakfast dish. It's genuinely distinct from the site's existing Nihari in its core cut: paye is made from trotters and feet, skin, cartilage, and bone, its richness coming from long-extracted gelatin, while nihari uses shank meat thickened with wheat flour and slow-cooked overnight — real culinary cousins that often share nihari-style whole-spice seasoning and turn up on the same menus together, rather than being unrelated dishes.
Meat
Ingredients
- 1.5kg goat or cow trotters, cleaned and cut
- 2 onions, sliced
- 3 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 4 cardamom pods
- 2 tbsp oil
- Fresh ginger, cilantro, and lemon, to serve
Steps
- Clean and blanch the trotters, discarding the blanching water.
- Fry the onions in oil until golden, then add ginger-garlic paste and whole spices.
- Add the trotters, turmeric, and coriander powder, and cook briefly.
- Cover with water and simmer very slowly for 4-6 hours, until the meat falls off the bone and the broth turns rich and gelatinous.
- Serve hot, topped with julienned ginger, cilantro, and a squeeze of lemon.