In love with haleem

The Fajar azaan sounds at 5.07 a.m. and the basic ingredient of haleem: meat; is being checked for quality in the best traditions of Michelin chefs in a function hall at Shahalibanda. A little distance away, Behind Haveli Manjli Begum, workers are firing up the logs as a few others fix the clay ovens enclosing the gargantuan couldrons.

Between the two spots, this is the kernel of evolution of haleem as the meat, wheat, and spices are transformed by the kasais and the khansama into the gooey, gelatinous, spicy, fragrant and the to die for dish for most Hyderabadis.

The measurements are oriental, as the workers dunk two baskets of meat, three fistfuls of chillies, a fist of scrapped papaya and water and cover it with a lid and seal it tight with a cloth. It is 6.15 a.m. and the traffic is picking up outside the small lane as the smoke and steam rise from hundred other cauldrons covered with red cloth across the old city and from Basheerbagh to Begumpet. The story is the same as meat from Chengicherla or Jiyaguda gets the treatment at the hands of the cooks.
It stays like this till 12 noon when the khansama Syed Pasha comes in attired like an executive in Allen Solly clothes and enters a mud plastered cubicle stocked with spices, rose petals and salt. A series of bowls are lined up and without becoming uncomfortable in the heat of the chullahs and smoke which makes eyes smart and runny, he fills each of the bowl with the right mix of ingredients. The meat that has been cooking for over six hours (it still doesn't smell of haleem), a gruel of pounded wheat is added on and Pasha's secret mix is dumped as is a fistful of coriander. Half hour dum cooking (now, it has the sweet, spicy smell) and half hour of pounding will make the haleem ready for the rozedars.

A few minutes before the Maghrib azaan, the siren marking the end of the fast does a fantastic thing. The Pathergatti, which appeared like a village market, is like a deserted boulevard, albeit with pushcarts vending everything from innerwear to ice lollies to Made-in-China toys. All the men have disappeared into huddles with bowls of fruits and dates to break the fast.

If Pista House is the destination of haleem eaters from everywhere, there are people who turn this Ramzan dish into a gastronomic odyssey. An odyssey can begin anywhere, right from Garden and Paradise in Secunderabad to Shadab, Niagara, Nayaab, Bawarchi, Azizza, or Embassy in Basheerbagh and the list goes on.

Raj Siddham is in the middle of his odyssey. "I am a Hyderabadi and have grown up with haleem. Nothing can compare to the taste of this dish. Though I live in Dubai, there isn't a single dish that can match it. Embassy near Basherbagh was hmmmm. There are more days to go and more places to explore," is the way he sees things.

Paradise is almost a world away as a different generation discovers the magic of haleem. One of them is Rohit Nayani who has come from Visakhapatnam and is working in Nipuna. "I like it and have already eaten at five places. It is so much more different from other non-veg dishes I have eaten," he says.
Then over cuppas of Irani chai, there can be endless debates about the haleem. Does the shredded chicken add zing to the dish, do diced eggs take away the flavour of the khari haleem and how come haleem to be supped by rozedars is so expensive as to be out of reach of the poor? By the time the debate would be over, it would be another Fajar prayer and within no time it would be Eid.

SERISH NANISETTI