One Pot Cheats Haleem

In the last few years every year during Ramzan, I plan a day trip to Hyderabad so that I can have Haleem. Well this year since I can't travel myself I decided to create Hyderabad right at 'home'. It was in my teens that I was first introduced to Haleem, via the evening news. It was Ramzaan time and one of the news channels was showing a feature on Iftaar across India- how the markets across India would have a festive look right after Iftaar when Muslims get to break their fast. In that same program, there was a segment of a street in Hyderabad and Haleem. I was so fascinated I tried reading up on that dish. We did have internet then but not like today. I had to wait quite a few years before I finally tasted Haleem. Apparently, it is only prepared during the holy month of Ramzaan.

I was on my first visit to Dubai and was sitting in a Pakistani restaurant. On the menu was Haleem. I had to try it. The first mouthful- wow, I realized what foodgasm meant. I wasn't disappointed. It was like meeting a lover whose voice you are familiar with but physically never met.

Preparing Haleem is a tedious process, sometimes taking close to 24 hours, so that all the flavors of the varieties of lentils, grains, and meat are enhanced. The grains, the lentils and the meat all combine together to form a paste-like consistency. And while not a very good looking dish and neither the description sounds appetizing, the velvety, melt-in-the-mouth taste of the dish is something that one needs to taste to understand what I am talking about.

 But true to its name, this blog is meant for people who are crunched for time. The idea is to deconstruct the recipe to an easy Haleem without compromising on the taste. The list of ingredients is slightly long but trust me, once you have everything it’s easy. Traditional recipes call for broken wheat or bulgur wheat, I have substituted oats to make it less time-consuming.

Ingredients:

250 gms boneless mutton

¼ cup yoghurt

¼ cup moong dal

¼ cup urad dal

¼ cup masoor dal

¼ cup chana dal

¾ cup oats

4 bayleaf

Salt to taste

4 onions

For Haleem Masala:

1dry red chilli

2 fresh green chili

1 tsp cumin seed

2 tsp coriander seed

1 tsp fennel seed

½ tsp carom/ajwain

1 tsp pepper seed

1 stick cinnamon

A bit of nutmeg and mace

8 cardamom, cover removed

5-6 cloves

1 inch ginger

10-12 garlic cloves

¼ tsp turmeric

1/3 cup oil

Method:

Dry roast all ingredients for the masala, except ginger, garlic and green chili.

Take care not to burn. Once you get the aroma, let it cool and grind into powder.

 Make a paste with the chillies, ginger and garlic. 

Mix everything together with the yoghurt and marinate the mutton. Preferably, overnight.

Also soak all the lentils overnight. If using unhulled urad, soak it separately and then remove the hull next morning. It washes off quite easily.

Slice the onions. Heat oil in a pressure cooker.

Fry half the onions into golden and remove. Keep it separately for use later.

Fry the rest of the onions, once done add the marinated mutton.

Add salt, note that we have lentils and oats too. so add the salt accordingly.

Add the bayleaf. Cook for sometime till the raw smell of the masala goes off and oil starts separating from the meat.

Then add a bit of water (like you would do while preparing regular mutton curry). Cover the cooker and cook the mutton till well done. I gave 5 whistles in my case.

After pressure releases, add all the lentils and the oats. Pour some water. (I added 2.5 cups). Note that too much of water, and you will have a hard time evaporating it to form a paste once the pressure releases. Too little and the lentils might burn/stick to the bottom of your cooker. (Every pressure cooker works slightly different, so make use of common sense when you add water). Cover the pressure cooker. I gave around 5 whistles and then cooked in low flame for another 20 minutes.

Once the pressure releases, check the taste, and add anything that you might require to balance the taste.

While serving top with the previously golden fried onions, julienned ginger, green chili and mint/coriander leaves. I also added a spoon of ghee as a garnish. It is preferable to prepare the Haleem about 1-2 hours before serving so that the flavors combine properly and you get the desired paste consistency.