Hey folks do you remember me from the last post? You can’t make this dish without the masala that goes with this dish and without cleaning the meat that goes in it.
Let me tell you how this dish got its name first. Katakat (pronounced TAK-A-TAK) is the sound of the clanging of untinsils while making this dish. It is made with assorted meat.
Now I hope I can turn an African on for once about Pakistani food. I am sure most definately because it is a carnavoure’s delight.
First what I did was clean the liver and kidneys by removing the outer memberane and cutting away the yucky part on the inside which would make it taste and smell horrible.
These must be removed and washed very throughly. Cut around the white part in the middle of the kidney to take it out and remove any outer membranes from both kidneys and liver. This was 1 kilo or 1 lb of each just give or take. I added this to the huge mixing bowl for further cleaning. I added 2 pinches of kosher salt and enough water to cover the liver and kidneys. As you can see the water is extremely bloody.
This means the salt and cold water is removing a lot of the blood from them. Keep rinsing them 5 times more with cold water and use a colander. This will help in removing the blood a great deal.
I then added 1 oz of white vinegar and allowed the kidneys and liver to finish the cleaning process. As they are soaking it is time to make the katakat masala then clean and chop up 1 heart.
Just cut it in half and remove all of the congeeled blood and rinse in cold water and boil 1 kilo or 1 lb of brain with 1 pinch of turmeric to clean and we are in business.
All of these can be from a cow, goat or lamb. I came back to the bowl the liver and kidneys was soaking after I made my masala and again I drained them and this time the blood was pretty much out of it and did not look as red anymore. The reason for this because they filter the blood and is part of the digestive tract and helps break food down.
Back to recipe, I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to my huge cast iron skillet. Corn safflower, sunflower, canola or peanut oil can be used too. I added the liver and kidneys that I have cleaned and fried them. In Pakistan it is made on a huge tawa and due to the nature of liver and kidneys while it is cooking even while frying that some water seeps out of the meat while cooking.
I kept stirring and making sure that the water dries out and kept frying on high heat. I then added my heart that I cut up. However I have a great advantage with my cast iron that I do not have to worry about the water from the meat overloading my tawa. My tawa is not no where near as big as theirs but it is very close.
I drained the brain that I had boiled and added it to the meat frying in my cast iron skillet and kept stirring until it is semi dry.
I cleaned the pot the brain was boiling in and by the way throw this water out it isn’t necessary.
I added 1/4 cup of olive oil more and added 1 onion or shallot cut in to half moon slices then caramelized them. I added the contents in my mortar and pestle which is the katakat masala, just look at the link above.
I added 1 green chili chopped and deseeded, 1 whole round red chili, 3 cloves of garlic chopped 1 pinch each of paprika, red chili powder, turmeric, 1 tomato.
I cooked the tomato until it was quite mushy then I added this to the assorted meat cooking in my cast iron skillet. I fried some more and added 1 pinch of cilantro and 1 medium piece of ginger cut in to tiny slivers at the end.
Then I added 2 tbs of yogurt to 1 pinch of cornstarch and 1 oz of water to make a slurry and added it to the assorted meat and stirred more.
There we have it and I hope you will enjoy this. I told Mr. riaz that I am going to make this dish and I did it. I looked it up on youtube of all places. Honestly I think my version looks and tastes better.
You can enjoy it with naan or chapati.
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