Aloo Bukhara Khushk (Dried Plums)

Size, wholeness and dryness, in that order. Aloo bukhara is graded hard in the trade because a plum loses most of its weight in drying, and the cheapest lots are the small fruit, the broken pieces and the stock dried down to leather, which is light to ship and disappointing to cook. Our buying rule at the counter is a press test: a good dried plum gives under the thumb and feels fleshy, almost jammy at the centre. It smells like fruit, sweet and tart together, never flat or musty. Fruit that passes that test costs more per kilo at the wholesale mandi, and the kilo also goes further in the pot, because whole plums can be counted into a deg one by one instead of being lost in it. My honest advice stands anyway: if you have not bought ours before, take the 500g pack first and put it in one biryani. That is the cheapest way to judge whether the grade earns its price.

Soak the plums in warm water for twenty to thirty minutes before they meet the rice, so they plump and give their sourness to the dish instead of drinking the masala. For chutney, simmer them down with the soaking water and adjust the tartness at the end. Eaten as a snack, a few plums at a time is the sensible portion: per 100 grams dried plums carry about 7 grams of fibre and roughly 240 calories, and the fibre is the reason a handful too many makes itself known. Our full guide to aloo bukhara prices, benefits and uses covers the grade question in more depth.

Keep the pack sealed in a cool, dark place and it holds for months. Dried plums slowly firm up as they age, which the soak fully reverses, so an older pack is a cooking pack rather than a loss. In summer, the fridge keeps the flesh softest. If the smell ever turns musty or you see mould, throw the pack out; that is the one fault no soaking fixes.

What is the aloo bukhara price in Pakistan? At WD Foods, Rs 2,200 for 1kg and Rs 1,100 for 500g, for large whole cooking grade plums. Cheaper lots exist, from around Rs 950 a kilo, and they are generally smaller or more broken fruit.

How many plums go in a biryani? For a family deg of about a kilo of rice, eight to twelve soaked plums, spaced through the layers, is the range most cooks land on.

Can aloo bukhara be eaten as a snack? Yes, a few at a time. It is a working dried fruit, high in fibre, and it rewards moderation rather than bowl eating.

WD Foods is the online store of Wahid Nimco, working from Quetta since 1990. We deliver across Pakistan in 3 to 5 business days. If you are in Quetta, come to the shop on Masjid Road, open every day from 9 AM to 10 PM, and press a plum from our pack before you pay. The rest of the shelf is in the dry fruits collection, with every rate in our dry fruits price list.