I have seen recipes on the net that make shola and it turns out to be something else and they pass it off as the real Mccoy like they do chapli kabab. The buck stops here now knock it off.
Ok, with that off my chest now I can continue, Please don’t misunderstand me? I am not bashing anyone and it is not my intention at all. I am very much peace loving and do not want any conflict. There is more then enough of that crap already that goes on in my so called immediate family and it is a shame my oldest daughter that does these things still is carrying this mess on and it is going on way too far. I have went through more then enough already.
So that is off of my chest too, I give credit for my late mother in law and late sister in law for guiding my hands to make this incredible dish because it is their favorite. I lost my beloved mother in law from diabetes a long time ago and I really miss her a lot and my late sister in law lost her battle to stage 3 cancer. I am totally heartbroken. I miss those ladies and they always had my back and of course I had theirs too and always will if they was still with me.
I really do not want to make my family sad but they know how I feel. This dish however is pure comfort food from Peshawar alone. If you want to cook dishes from a particular area it is important to stick to the real ingredients to make it authentic. Here when they say Pakistani or Indian style it does not even come close to the real thing, now authentic using authentic ingredients is a different matter.
I took 1/2 cup each of green moong ki dal and short grain rice. The short grain rice can be white or brown and it is short grain rice only. I washed them and soaked them for 4 hours to overnight.
Add 1 oz of vegetable, or olive oil. Add 2 garlic cloves and 1 small piece of ginger washed peeled and ground in to a paste in a mortar and pestle. Add 1 chopped green chili, either seranno or jalapeno. Add both 1 pinch each of black peppercorns and cumin to a mortar and pestle and grind to a coarse powder and add that to the pressure cooker.
Add 1 pinch of pink salt or for added flavor skip the pink salt and add 1 bullion cube, chicken, or beef, or vegetable works just fine and is strongly recommended. Add 1 tsp each of turmeric, red chili powder, cinnamon and Garam Masala. Add 3 dashes of either of knorr or maggi aroma and turn burner on to high and stir. Don’t let the garlic turn a dark brown.
At this point you can put meat in here. It can be beef like oxtails, lamb, chicken, and goat, goat’s head, cow’s feet or goat’s feet in my case because cow’s feet is my enemy because it congests me so badly I end up needing to go the the hospital. Also cow’s, lamb’s, or goat’s tongue can also be added. Just make sure you cook them in a pressure cooker on medium heat for 40 to 50 minutes then peel the skin off of the tongue before you cut it up. Please save the stock which is very important. These are the shola meat options. Also please make sure the meat is on the bone before you put it in the cooker because it gives the shola great flavor.
As you can tell from the picture that I used goat’s head. This is the same one that is in an African dish called isiewu. So here is another way to enjoy a goat’s head. 😀 Add the meat to the pressure cooker and fry it with the masala and add 2 liters or 1/2 gallon of water in the pressure cooker and let the safety valve pop up and and set the timer for 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes is up turn the burner off and let pressure escape and take a frying pan or wok and use 3 tsp of either olive or vegetable oil. Cut 1 onion in to half moon slices and caramelize them. It can be any color onion you choose just as long it is not a long green onion otherwise known as scallions. You do not add those . Set the caramelized onions aside.
After the pressure went down, open the pressure cooker and check on the amount of water in the cooker and to see if the meat is tender. Add the mixture of green moong ki dal and shrort grain rice and make sure there is enough water in there covering the rice, dal and meat. Put the cover back over the pressure cooker and turn the burner on to high, wait for safety valve to pop up, turn timer on for 10 minutes, reduce heat to medium.
After the time is up, turn off the burner and let the pressure subside. After the pressure is gone and the safety valve is lowered, open the lid and check the shola. If it is soupy and the dal, meat and rice turns to mush, this is what you want. No you didn’t do anything wrong the dish is made this way and it is so delicious.
Turn the burner back on high and let the shola dry out. Keep stirring at this point to keep it from burning. When the moisture is gone just turn it off and at this stage if it is still a little soupy don’t worry because it will thicken as it cools, just turn the burner off and add 1 giant pinch of cilantro and caramelized onion and put the lid over the shola for 10 minutes to catch the flavors.
We eat this with plain yogurt and in my case too I enjoy achar which means pickle with this dish also.
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