Haleem

On one of my numerous trips to Hyderabad, near Chanda Nagar for my work in Nov-Dec 2012, I saw an unusual and welcome sight. A topi clad person was sitting with dishes piled in a pyramid. In a reflex, without really processing it I had a craving for food that I describe as Muslim Indian food.

 

My concept of “muslim food” has nothing to do with religion, only the culture. These are special delights made by the muslims of India, and are different in different parts of the country but there are many common features. One of these features is that they are made by Muslim shop/joint owners! But I have eaten excellent Muslim food in food places I don’t describe as Muslim, where the religion and culture of the cook, owner is not important or is deliberately secular. One such place is the Coffee House in Thrissur, Kerala, where I have had excellent Curried Chicken and Chicken Biryani!

In the meanwhile, I asked this person what he was making and selling. He said he was selling haleem. I was happy beyond my dream. I have never had haleem in Hyderabad, but I have read poems written in its praise. And I have had haleem in other parts of the country, and thus knew enough to not waste even one more second. I sat down on one of the plastic chairs trying to contain my overflowing excitement, in this case via salivary ducks, and asked him to serve me one portion. 

Even as I watched he removed a lid and took something out of the ground! This left my mouth open. Given the excitement involving salivary gland, this has some undesired effects.

More precisely he took something out of a huge metal container which is encased in the large concrete block he was sitting on. As I cleaned my mouth with a handkerchief, I tried to form the words to ask “what is the meat?”

“Chicken” he responded.

Unusual for muslim food to have chicken instead of lamb or beef, but it is the most affordable meat nowadays. And all I care for is the wheat, lentils and spices anyway.

After gobbling down two platefuls of the amazing mix, I was full of haleem. 

In the small space between larger grains and in the air bubbles, I was full of pity. Pity for the unenlightened poor souls in our country and the world who have no idea what wonderful delight of civilization I was savouring. I burped a happy reflux of tasty haleem which created some space for creative though, and I decided to write about it.

To begin, let me describe what I just ate with near death excitement. 

When served, haleem looks like a orange yellow grainy mix sprinkled with crispy fried fine springs of onion, fresh and fragrant finely chopped green coriander leaves, and a yellow slice of juicy sour lemon. In most parts of the country the paste is fine with no identification whatsoever of the contents other that some whole spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, or cloves, that are meant to be taken out at the time of eating. In other parts the ingredients are left in slightly bigger grains that are well blended with the invisible meat. 

Before this once, wherever I had haleem, it was served out of thick walled, sometimes big, but always regular sized containers. I asked the topi-ed guy about the huge metal deg dug into the ground. And unearthed a story. 

 Father of this chap is the hero of this story. He started this business 21 years ago. Then people considered it shameful to sit outside and eat, and there weren't many people who would eat at his shop. But he persisted, he would cook for marriages and on large orders, and daily a good quantity in this very container. Slowly he taught the people of this area the idea of outsourcing the preparation of complicated and time consuming food items to experts who offer this service for a small premium. And his business took on. Many years later his brother-in-law who was more of a business man than him, offered to look after the growing business. The brother in law used his brand name to start many branches in other parts of the city as well. But the business partnership spelled a financial disaster for the original cook. When he passed away the brother-in-law decided to lay a claim on the whole business. Now the son of the original entrepreneur is left to runs this one small shop to make his living. 

A rather sad story behind great this exciting food. Excites some other glands  such as the tear duct. But don't let the story dishearten you, keep your heart and let the spicy fatty food like haleem do things to it. If you want to cook haleem, one recipe can be found here and another one here (video).

Read More:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haleem
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/183586/hyderabad-haleem-now-rs100-crore.html