Siri paye is a winter breakfast dish of Lahore and Punjab, made from the head (siri) and trotters (paye) of a cow or goat, slow-cooked for 6 to 8 hours until the cartilage and marrow dissolve completely into the broth. The dish is related to the Lahori paye (trotters only) but includes the head meat, which gives a deeper, richer flavour. The broth is thick and sticky, coating the lips and the naan dipped into it. In Lahore, siri paye shops open before dawn in winter, serving the dish to workers, travellers and families who consider it restorative. The long cooking in a sealed pot with minimal spices (ginger, garlic, turmeric, a few whole spices) lets the quality of the bones speak.
A thick, sticky, deeply savoury broth that coats the lips, with gelatinous pieces of head meat and soft trotter, the bones picked clean at the table. Eaten with naan soaked in the gravy, each piece loaded with collagen-rich broth.
The technique is a very long simmer extracting collagen from head and trotters. The head is cleaned, singed, split, and the brain removed. Trotters are similarly cleaned. They are parboiled, drained, then simmered with fried onion, ginger-garlic paste, whole spices (cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black cumin) and water in a sealed pot for 6 to 8 hours on very low heat. The cartilage in the head and the collagen in the trotters dissolve completely, giving the broth its characteristic thickness and stickiness. No flour or starch is added; the body comes entirely from dissolved connective tissue. The dish is finished with fried onion, fresh ginger strips, coriander and lemon.
Variations
Some use goat instead of cow. A version with Nihari spice mix is richer.
On the Palate
Where Siri Paye sits in the Pakistani flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
5 steps · 30 min
- 18 min
Clean and singe 1 cow head (split) and 4 trotters; parboil 15 minutes; drain.
- 26 min
Fry 2 sliced onions in 100ml ghee until golden; add 3 tbsp ginger-garlic paste, 4 cardamom, 2 cinnamon, 6 cloves.
- 38 min
Add the head and trotters and 3 litres water; seal the pot; simmer on very low heat 6 hours.
Watch outSimmer on the lowest heat for hours until the broth turns thick and sticky — that body comes entirely from dissolved collagen, so don't rush it.
- 45 min
When the meat falls from the bones and the broth is thick and sticky, add salt and fried onions.
- 54 min
Garnish with ginger strips and coriander; serve with naan and lemon.
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