Now that Eid is just around the corner, this is the time to indulge in some meat cooking. Eid-ul-Adha brings many rejoices including cooking delicious kebabs, nihari and biryani.

Here we share some of the easiest meat dishes to prepare this eid.

These delicious, juicy kebabs can be made with minced beef. They are a terrific appetizer but also make a nice side dish to the main meal. While seekh kabab is best made and eaten fresh, the raw mix can be prepared in advance and frozen.

Put mince, chopped onion, garlic, ginger, chopped coriander, lemon juice, yogurt, garam masala, green chilies and salt into a large mixing bowl. Use your hands or a wooden spoon to mix the ingredients thoroughly till they are well blend. Cover the bowl and put into the refrigerator for an hour. Remove from fridge and divide the mix into equal portions. Take each portion and form it into a long sausage-like kebab while pressing on to a skewer. Do this till the mix has firmly adhered to the skewer. Put some oil on your hands to prevent meat from sticking to them. Grill the kebabs; grilling on a coal fire gives them a lovely smoky flavor. When cooked properly, serve piping hot on a bed of onion rings, with mint-coriander chutney.

Nihari is one dish that many people love to ear at home. Nihari is a deliciously smooth flour based stew with slow cooked mutton and a myriad of spices. This mutton nihari recipe takes four hours to cook but it’s easy to put together. To get the best flavour, the mutton is cooked on very low heat for upto four hours.

Just like garam masala, Nihari masala is a mix of whole aromatic spices. The whole spices like cardamom, fennel, cloves, nutmeg, dry ginger etc are roasted and then ground to a powder.

To make your own Nihari masala from scratch, dry roast all the whole spices for the masala; cool; and grind them to a fine powder.

Heat Ghee in a deep bottom stock pot. Once the ghee is hot, add the sliced onions and fry till they start to turn brown. Add mutton pieces, ginger paste, garlic paste, coriander powder, turmeric powder and salt. Mix well to coat the mutton in ghee and spices. Sauté for 5 mins. Add the home made nihari masala and 8 cups of water. Mix well, cover and cook on very low heat for about 4 hours until the meat is tender. Keep checking in between. The way to know that the meat is cooked is when it breaks easily with a wooden spoon. Dissolve wheat flour in half cup of water such that there are no lumps. Slowly add it to the gravy. Stir to mix it well in the gravy and let it simmer for another 10-15 mins till the gravy thickens. Sprinkle some lime juice and garnish with ginger strips and fresh coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Loaded with nuts and indulgently creamy, kulfis are one summer staple we are always up for. This festive season, here’s another reason to enjoy this dense, delicious and nutty dessert. Guess what? It is ridiculously easy to make at home, too, and can be made with basic ingredients like milk and nuts. Here’s a delicious recipe of mango kulfi to try at home this Eid.

Simmer milk in a wide bottomed pan on a medium flame. Add cream to this and mix well. Keep stirring continuously. Now add condensed milk to the mix and stir well. Put saffron strands to the mix followed by cardamom seeds and dry fruit mix. Mix well and keep simmering on medium flame till it further reduces to almost one third of its original quantity. Turn off flame and allow to cool. Add mango puree for a mango flavoured kulfi. Once cool, transfer the mixture to matkas and refrigerate overnight.