The Karachi Kitchen Cookbook: A Contemporary Look at Regional Pakistani Cuisine

(Gerry Furth-Sides) One look at trim, attractive Kausar Ahmed, with an apron neatly tied around her waist, piques your curiosity about what she eats because you want to eat the same thing.  And you can know.  Kausar’s The Karachi Kitchen cookbook holds beloved family recipes from her hometown Karachi, Pakistan, that reflect the diverse multi-cultural region at a crossroads of South Asia – currently including an important French influence. 

The Gourmand Award-winning book offers a recipes that appeal to all ages because of the variety of flavors and textures, such as Okra Chips, Masala Rubbed Roast Beef Tenderloin, and Khao Suey (Coconut Noodle Curry).   Fried Okra Chips turns out to be one of Kausar’s  favorites, and this international traveler was astonished at the “freshness, the tenderness, and the flavor” of the  Melissa’s Produce veggie.  “We used to have to pick them in a neighbor’s garden to get them this fresh even at home,” she joked.

Kausar’s love for cooking started at family meals and eventually evolved into a career that spanned continents.  When she told us the fascinating story of her grandmother, Bilquis Khanam, and her father, both very influential in her tale, it was easy to understand her universal outlook.  Her grandmother, “a short powerhouse” who birthed 17 children with 12 of them surviving, and a husband who left her, became what was probably one of the first feminists anywhere, publishing the first magazine in Pakistan for women.  Her morning walks including speaking to everyone she met and collecting guests to dine with the family with food laid out on the floor.  

Comparisons naturally followed.  “Spices in Karachi are sharper,” Chef Kausar told us, “moving toward Lahore, they are milder and milder until ‘they become salt and pepper,’ ” she laughed.

Kausar’s dad, a chemical engineer, already influenced the family’s culinary taste since his mom was from Bombay and he brought these regional dishes to the table.  He also surprised Kausar at the start of her first summer vacation as a teen, when she was prepared to laze around,  by having her accompany him at work.  “It was the start of a work ethnic that Kausar not only developed but passed along to her own children and to her students.

Growing up in a big Pakistani family it was easy for Kausar to be enamored with food from a young age. “Warm smells would float out of the kitchen and cause a sensory explosion” she says about her mother’s fresh home cooked meals where ingredients like turmeric, cumin, and ginger were staples, along with seasonal produce. As she started helping her mother, Ghausia (below) in the Chotani family kitchen, cooking became a happy and also therapeutic activity – bringing people together over a meal gave her immense pleasure while bringing her community closer together.

 Being raised in dynamic, multi-lingual Karachi also played an important role in Kausar’s evolution, slowly developing her passion into a career.  Cher Kausar reminded us that Karachi is a seaport (like Canton, New York, San Francisco) so it has been influenced by traders for centuries, rich in culinary and cultural history.  Regional cuisine in trade-hub Karachi is a hybrid of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern ingredients and styles of preparation in what Chef Ahmed describes as, the most culturally diverse city in the country and one of the most populated in the world. “

 Kausar knows what people like.  She has served as a chef, educator, food stylist, and culinary consultant for top tier culinary institutions and brands including the Institute of Culinary Education, Williams Sonoma, Unilever, Nestle and more for the past three decades. She has also taught pro-bono cooking classes to over 300 public school students in Pakistan and the United States.

Kausar’s love for cooking started at family meals and eventually evolved into a career. Growing up in a big Pakistani family it was easy for Kausar to be enamored with food from a young age. “Warm smells would float out of the kitchen and cause a sensory explosion” she says about her mother’s fresh home cooked meals where ingredients like turmeric, cumin, and ginger were frequently used, along with whatever else happened to be in season. As she started helping her mother in the kitchen, cooking became a therapeutic activity – bringing people together over a meal gave her immense pleasure as it brought her community closer together.