The holy month of Muslims, Ramadan is about to end on June 14 and as the last date of the month is getting closer; the level of craziness of people for all things holy, is increasing.
Keeping this in mind, we have brought for you an amazing dish without which is preferred for breaking the fast, more than any other dish.
Haleem is the combination of meat, wheat, and lentils mixed with various spices makes it a perfect dish for breaking the fast because the porridge-like texture that it develops. There are many health benefits, associated with the dish, and the fact that it energizes the body adds to the list of those benefits.
Haleem is prominently cooked in Hyderabad, and without its presence, the celebration in the city isn’t considered complete. The best part is that it can be easily afforded by everyone. The price range starts from Rs. 30 per plate and reaches to Rs. 160 per plate. Rich or poor everyone should be able to afford the necessities of the festival, and the city of Hyderabad discourages no one.
When you walk in the various streets of the city, you can easily see every restaurant, big or small, preparing the dish right on the road. Preparing the mouth-watering dishes and advertising them together. The surprising part of this is, although people are advancing, they have still managed to keep their traditions purely traditional. You can see almost every restaurant preparing the dish in the same ovens made up of bricks and mud, locally called ‘Bhatti’.
The popularity of Haleem is so huge that people forget the religious barriers dividing them and collectively celebrate the mouth-watering dishes of the month at Sarvi, Shah Ghouse, and Pista House. However, the popularity of no other food touches the popularity that Haleem holds, but several other dishes that become famous during this season are dahi bade and kebabs. The signature dish of Hyderabad, Biryani, can’t even dream of touching Haleem’s popularity status.
Not just cooked foods, but fruits and dry fruits see a rise in demand, as well. The most common one of them is ‘dates’, markets of Hyderabad sells the imported dates as well, to please every kind of customer.
Another thing that marks this festival is the traffic on the roads, especially in the central part of the city. The central part of the city holds an intense competition of Haleem makers. Haleem was originally an Arabic dish, as the name suggests, it was brought in India by the Mughals. But Indians then transformed the Arabic dish in their own Indian style. They added Indian spices in it, ghee, dry fruits, and the unique Indian cooking style.
During the competition, the chefs from various restaurants work hard to create the exact same Indian taste of Haleem. They are seen working on their bhattis along with their assistants, toiling for ten hours trying to recreate the taste, which will make them the winner. The audience that surrounds these competitors is both excited and elated, and their excitement results in an epic traffic jam.
Every Hyderabadi restaurant claims to have their own special taste of Haleem. Everyone experiments in their own way to produce their own kind of supreme taste that can keep the customers begging for more. However, there is this one process which does not change in any restaurant. That process is pounding of meat. Two men beat the meat along with a few ingredients with large wooden poles, which converts the mixture into a fine paste.
Serving the dish varies from restaurant to restaurant too. Some like to garnish their dishes with shorba, coriander, carmelized onions, and lemon, while some others garnish it with zaban (Goat’s tongue), egg and fried pieces of chicken.
The fact that haleem has grown in popularity so much since last two decades is due to Pista House. This brand is global now and claims that it is the largest haleem maker in the world.