Hyderabadi Haleem

Ingredients

Meat

• 500 gmutton on the bone
• 3 tbspginger garlic paste
• 200 mlyoghurt
• 2 tspred chilli powder
• 1 tspturmeric
• 2 tspgaram masala
• 1 tspshahi jeera
• salt

Grain

• 250 gcracked wheat, soaked
• 100 gchana dal
• 50 gmasoor dal
• 50 gmoong dal
• 50 gurad dal

Fat and onion

• 200 gghee
• 3onions, thinly sliced

To finish

• 1 bunchcoriander and mint
• juice of 2 lemons

To serve

• fried onion
• ghee
• lemon wedges
• mint
• ginger julienne

Directions

1. Soak the cracked wheat and all four lentils separately for at least 4 hours.
2. Fry the sliced onions slowly in ghee until deep brown and crisp, then lift them out. This is birista, and half goes into the pot and half on top at the end.
3. Brown the onions properly and take them just short of black. They carry most of the sweetness and depth, and pale onions give a flat haleem.
4. In the same ghee, fry the ginger garlic paste, then add the mutton and brown it well.
5. Add the chilli, turmeric, garam masala, shahi jeera, yoghurt, half the birista, half the herbs and salt, and cook for 10 minutes.
6. Add water to cover and pressure cook or simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes, until the meat falls from the bone.
7. Separately, boil the soaked wheat and lentils in plenty of water for 1 hour 30 minutes, until completely soft and collapsing.
8. Cook the grain and the meat separately and combine them late. They need very different times, and cooked together the lentils dissolve long before the mutton gives up.
9. Pick the meat off the bones and shred it, discarding every bone and scrap of gristle.
10. Combine the meat with the cooked grain in a large heavy pot.
11. Now the pounding, which is what makes it haleem. Take a heavy wooden masher, the ghotni, and beat the mixture against the base of the pot.
12. Beat and fold for 30 to 45 minutes over a low heat, adding hot water whenever it stiffens too much to work.
13. It is finished when nothing is identifiable, the meat fibres and lentils have merged into one smooth glossy paste, and a spoonful lifted from the pot pulls into strands.
14. A blender gives you a purée; only beating gives the stringy pull that Hyderabadi cooks judge it by. Commercial haleem is beaten by machine in vast vats for hours.
15. Stir in the lemon juice, the rest of the herbs and a generous quantity of ghee.
16. Serve very hot, topped with the remaining birista, more ghee, ginger julienne, mint and a wedge of lemon.
17. It came with Hadhrami Arab soldiers serving the Nizams, and in 2010 it became the first Indian non-vegetarian dish to receive a geographical indication.
18. It is Ramadan food above all, sold from vast pots at iftar across Hyderabad and cooked far less often the rest of the year.

Technique

• The Iranian halim under the same root is a sweet breakfast of wheat and turkey with cinnamon and sugar, which is a wholly different dish.
• Mutton rather than lamb, and on the bone, which is where the body of it comes from.
• It freezes well, which is how most households deal with the quantity it makes.

Substitutions

• Chicken, which is common now and cooks considerably faster.
• Pearl barley in place of some of the cracked wheat.

Variations

• Vegetarian haleem, with more lentils and no meat.
• Harees, the plainer Arabian ancestor.
• Chicken haleem, sold alongside the mutton version across Hyderabad.

History

Brought by Hadhrami Arab soldiers serving the Nizams; in 2010 it became the first Indian non-vegetarian dish to receive a geographical indication.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hyderabadi Haleem?

Hyderabadi Haleem is a main from India: wheat, lentils and mutton pounded to a paste and eaten during Ramadan. Brought by Hadhrami Arab soldiers serving the Nizams; in 2010 it became the first Indian non-vegetarian dish to receive a geographical indication.

How long does Hyderabadi Haleem take to make?

Hyderabadi Haleem takes 30 min plus 4 hr soaking of preparation and 4 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 10 servings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Hyderabadi Haleem?

Yes, within limits. Chicken, which is common now and cooks considerably faster. Pearl barley in place of some of the cracked wheat.

What is the most important thing to get right in Hyderabadi Haleem?

Mutton rather than lamb, and on the bone, which is where the body of it comes from.