Haleem

Oh Haleem! Perfect comfort food, gooey in texture, meaty and wheaty, mild to taste and just wonderful! Normally, even until just a few years ago, available in Hyderabad only during the Ramzan period - ideal for breaking the fast in Iftar, the first meal after the fast at sunset - not only in the special Muslim kitchens in Charminar and around the city, but also in pop up street stalls and bandis all over. Now, you can probably get it all round the year if you sought it out. And quite a labour of love to make. BUT .... if you make it yourself you can control what meat goes into it (avoiding various icky bits), how much fat you put in, what cereal you use - freeing from gluten and anything else you need to, and make it just right to your taste. So here is a recipe - made it yesterday - after watching and reading several different Youtube and other recipes.

It is originally a Persian recipe say some, and Arabic say others - and called Harees - but different versions of this meat/wheat combination can be found all over the Middle East. In Turkey, says Emine, it is called keshkek - a term also used in other countries such as Afghanistan and all the other nearby stans. According to Wikipedia "Harees was introduced in the Indian subcontinent by the Arab soldiers of the Hyderabad Nizam's army to the city.Today, Harees is still available in the Arab quarter of Hyderabad, an area called Barkas, where the dish is called Jareesh. Later on, the people of Hyderabad modified it to suit their palate thus creating modern haleem" This Hyderabadi Haleem is special - wikipedia again: "In 2010 Hyderabadi haleem was awarded Geographical Indication status by the Indian GI registry office. It became the first meat product of India to receive a GI certification. This means that a dish cannot be sold as Hyderabadi haleem unless it meets the necessary standards laid down for it."

Ingredients

The meat

Mutton or lamb: 1 Kg of a mixture of chops, shoulder or leg cut into large pieces - 3 inches or so - this is important. The exact cut of meat doesn't matter, but make sure there is a bit of fat and some bone - to add flavour. If you prefer chicken - do the same - get some bony pieces in - thigh and drumstick and some meaty pieces - whatever you can. Keep the skin in while cooking the meat, but it has all the tasty fat bits - but then discard it later while mashing the meat.

The 'wheat'

Wheat, barley, red lentils, white lentils (urad dal), moon dal, chana dal (split peas): The important thing here is to have roughly equal amount (once cooked) of this combination - to the volume of cooked meat. Dopn't do what I did yesterday and have equal weights of the uncooked wheat and dal. I ended up with three times the volume of wheat and dal that I needed and had to devise various strategies to freeze it. So how much in uncooked weight? Go for no more than 300 grams of the combo - 150 gm wheat, 100 gm barley plus urad dal, 50 gm the remaining dals. You can see this is a fairly flexible combination.

The spices

Onions: 5 or 6 medium ones - half for a light frying as a prep for the meat and half for dark frying as a garnish.

Ginger and garlic paste: 2 tbsps

Cinnamon: One 2-inch piece

Shah jeera: 2 tspsns

Cloves: 6 (bashed up a bit to prevent accidentally biting on them later)

Cardamom: About 5 little green ones (again bashed up), or one teaspoon of the seeds alone (also bashed up)

Black pepper: one and a half teaspoons

Ghee: About 200 gm - basically a lot! You could use a mix of ghee and sunflower oil if you wish.

Yogurt: 3 heaped tablespoons

Garam masala powder: 2 teaspoons

Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon

The processes:

The meat:

1. Marinate the meat: (if mutton or lamb wash it first) in the yogurt, the ginger garlic paste, the coriander powder and half of the pepper and garam nasal powders. Leave for a few hours or overnight or, if rushed, for half an hour.

2. Soak the wheat, barley and lentils: Wash and then soak the mixed grains. They will swell up, so keep adding water to cover them. Do this overnight or for at least a few hours.

3. Cook the meat: In a pressure cooker - heat two thirds of the ghee, fry the dry spices for a minute or two, then put in the meat pieces and brown them for a few minutes. Add in some water - about two cups - put the pressure cooker lid on and cook for at least half an hour - more is fine - (if you have a whistling one, reduce flame after first whistle and let it cook for half an hour ish at least).

4. Cook the grains: Boil the grains stirring every few minutes (don't use a pressure cooker for this - the days will stick to the bottom) -