RAWALPINDI: With most people taking to cooking and barbequing meat themselves and making a family affair out of it during Eidul Azha, most restaurants across the city remain closed for business during the three days of Eid, and have little business even afterwards.

However, most professional cooks remain busy throughout the Eid holidays and are employed by most for making roasts, especially leg roasts.

Most restaurants even put up banners before Eid, offering the services of their cooks for roasting meat and making hunter beef.

Because it takes a long time to prepare, people hire professionals to make roasts and hunter beef, especially for the parties thrown after Eid.

The recipe for leg roast is simple, with spices including chilli, salt, black pepper, garam masala and ginger and garlic mixed in curd are rubbed on the meat and left to marinate for two hours.

The meat is then roasted on coal or in an oven till it turns golden and is cooked.

Simple as the recipe is, one of the chefs Dawn spoke to, Mohammad Shahid said the trick is in mixing the spices in just the right quantities, in roasting the meat for just the right time,so that both sides of the meat get roasted for the same time.

“Most people bring us animal legs to roast two weeks after Eid, but it is best to roast meat at most five days after an animal has been slaughtered,” he said.

He said most people were reluctant to handle bigger pieces of meat and therefore take them to various restaurants to be cooked.

A cook at a restaurant in Committee Chowk, Mohammad Munir, said it was easier for professional cooks to handle bigger portions of meat as they did the same every day.

“It is usually the women who cook at homes and during Eid, men take to the barbeques. Most people do not want to risk experimenting with the food they will be serving at parties, which is why they call us,” he said.

Saleem Ahmed, who was looking to hire the services of a professional cook at a restaurant in Saddar, said that people were usually busy attending to guests at home and did not have time to cook heavy dishes.

He said that is why he had brought a goat’s leg to be roasted in a restaurant.

He said him and his wife had tried making leg roast last year and that the meat had turned out half cooked and had gone to waste.

A resident of Committee Chowk, Mohammad Anwar, said that roasted leg is the main dish to serve guests on Eid, which is why it should be prepared by a professional.

“Roasted leg is very popular with my family as the meat is tender and juicy,” he said.

“Roasted meat can be eaten without bread as well. Rich dishes made from the meat of sacrificial animals are usually accompanied by green tea and soft drinks to aid digestion.

But roasted meat is lighter and is easier to digest,” he added.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2016