Sunday, March 05, 2006

Haleem


Haleem is a traditional mughlai wheat-and-meat dish, cooked especially during Ramzan. I first had it three years ago, at a Hyderabadi friend’s house, and was completely enamored by its spicy-nutty taste. This recipe is her version of haleem , with four varieties of dals and Shan haleem masala mix. We have tried making haleem the traditional way using home-made spice mix, but Shan spice mix simply beats all our attempts in taste. So after a few abortive attempts we have decided to stick to readymade masala , atleast for this dish. Haleem really needs to be slow cooked for 4 to 5 hours at least for the flavors to harmonize, and like most things patiently waited for , a bowl of hot haleem is so well worth the wait.

Recipe

Toor dal : ½ cup
Masoor dal : ½ cup
Split moong dal : ½ cup
Urad dal : ½ cup
Cracked wheat : 2 cups
Boneless meat : 2 lbs
Shan Haleem masala : 1 packet
Oil : 2T
Lime : 1
Finely sliced ginger, green chillies and fried onions for garnishing.

Soak the wheat and lentils for 5 to 6 hours.

In a large pan heat oil and add the meat and spice mix and fry for 5 minutes. Then add the soaked grains and cover, and cook on low heat until the meat is tender, stirring occasionally to prevent burning; this can take four to five hours. (If you are really short on time, you could pressure cook the whole thing on medium heat for 45 minutes, and mash into a coarse paste- must warn, taste suffers this way)

Once done , remove the meat pieces, and finely shred the meat. Add the meat to the haleem, and bring to a quick boil. Garnish with fried onions, chopped cilantro, green chillies and plenty of lime juice.

For extra creamy texture you can grind half the grain to a smooth paste in the blender and mix well into the haleem and boil.

10 comments:

BDSN said...

Hai..Since Iam a vegetarian can I obmit the meat and just work with the masala and the dhals..Will it turn out good

reshma said...

Hey bdsn,I am not sure how that would turn out. Won't it taste like sambaar with the spices gone wrong?:)

BDSN said...

Hey!!! good thinking.....May be ur right...Its better to think twice rather than wasting stuff...Well thanks for your answer..

Anonymous said...

i live in canada and would love if you would translate all the spices in english
:)

Anonymous said...

i think you forget to put chana dal.in my recipie i use 200g wheat,200 grams barley 300grams .50grams rice,50grams masoor dal,50 gramsurad dal,50grams tuar dal n 50grams mong dal. one n a half pack of shan masala.half kilo mutton half kilo chicken.the taste is really v good.but cooking time is minimum 5 hours on v slow fire.with a pinch of soda bicarbonate.

Yasmeen said...

AsSalaam Alaykum Reshma,
your haleem is nothing less than perfect. I love the presentation.

Shade man said...

Haleem is awesome... SubhanAllah
I eat it with roti

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Unknown said...

Hi, we used Shaan Haleem mix but without the meat. I'm vegetarian, so we used gluten (from the Chinese store - bottled or canned). Because I pressure-cooked the wheat mixture and added the spice mix later, the spice is too strong and raw. Maybe next time I'll slow cook it.

Note: I didn't blend the Haleem once done. The gluten and the wheat/barley/split pea mixture as a whole tastes good texture-wise. Overall, we enjoyed it and will be cooking this more often.