Nihari

Now that I have started the year on the right note by talking about vegetarian food, let me get straight back to business. With winter baring its fangs, I would suggest that meat lovers get ready for some juicy meat. It will warm your blood, bring cheer and make a dreary day look so much brighter.

I have always believed that two of the most delicious meat dishes in India are haleem and nihari. I can’t forget an early morning breakfast of nihari in Old Delhi many years ago. I stood with die-hard meat lovers, eagerly waiting for a degh, simmering for hours, to be unsealed. When it was finally opened, a wonderful aroma of meat and spices wafted up in the air. And I had my hearty meal of nihari — a dish of goat shanks.

Haleem — a dish of broken wheat and dals cooked with meat, again over long hours — is another great delicacy that’s a part of our Muslim food. Like nihari, it’s wholesome and truly delectable. The Hyderabadi variety is so famous that it is actually canned and sold to sate the appetites of those who have tasted it — and want more.

This winter has been good so far, because I’ve had quite a few helpings of haleem and nihari. Some weeks ago, Varun Tuli — who runs The Yum Yum Tree, a restaurant in New Delhi — made me taste the two dishes from his catering service. Both were superb. The haleem had been mashed so well that each spoonful was a delicious mouthful. The nihari was a mouth-watering thick gravy of shanks that had melted into the stock.

Haleem

Soon thereafter, I went for a Hyderabadi meal at The Park in New Delhi. And though I ate quite a few other regional delicacies — including pathhar key kabab (meat strips grilled on hot granite) and kacchey gosht ki biryani — I was wowed by the haleem prepared by Syed Hassan, master chef at The Park, Hyderabad.

I asked Tuli, who is a brilliant chef, and Gyaz Raza, who is another great cook from Old Delhi, the secrets of a good haleem and nihari. Both agreed that these were dishes that needed time. “You have to just let it simmer over long hours, otherwise you will never get the taste,” says Gyaz.

Tuli and Gyaz add pounded and roasted channa to their nihari to give it the right consistency. “You know it’s done when the nihari is nicely thick,” says Gyaz. “Haleem has to have a creamy and jelly-like consistency,” adds chef Hassan, who also points out that a good nihari or haleem has to be cooked with tender mutton.

For the perfect nihari, Tuli stresses that the mutton has to be marinated with ginger-garlic paste, powdered coriander, caraway, turmeric and salt for at least four hours. Then it has to be cooked in ghee with cloves, black and green cardamoms, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves and mace, followed by powdered nutmeg, black pepper, onion seed, coriander, fennel , turmeric and deghi mirch — along with garlic powder and onions. Now you have to let it simmer with a yakhni stock (see recipe).

Once this is done, Tuli puts ghee in a non-stick pan. He adds channa powder and roasts it for a while. He whisks it really well, and then adds the cooked shanks. He removes the nalli, strains the stock and puts the nalli back again, finally adding screw pine (keora) water to it.

In this weather, I believe there is nothing quite as heart-warming as haleem and nihari. Wait for the aromatic steam from a just opened pot to excite your nostrils. It’s a feeling that defies definition.

Haleem (serves 6)

Ingredients:

For yakhni stock:
4 pieces of trotters 1kg goat bones 2 quartered onions1 tsp whole black peppe 2 bay leaves 10 litres water

For mutton marinade:

1kg boneless mutton 400g curd 2 tsp salt 4 tsp deghi mirch ½ tsp cinnamon powder ½ tsp clove powder ½ tsp cardamom powder 50g fried cashew paste 30g roasted poppy seed paste 2 tsp dried rose petal powder 1 tsp caraway powder 1 tsp allspice powder

For daliya preparation:

200g daliya 100g arhar dal 100g white urad dal 2 tsp turmeric 4 tsp salt 2 litres water

For slow cooking:

500g ghee 400g sliced onions 1 tbs garam masala 250ml milk

Method:

For the yakhni, cook the ingredients together in a pressure cooker till the paya (trotters) is tender (8-9 whistles). Marinate the meat with the ingredients listed for four hours or overnight. Soak the dals and daliya for one hour and then boil with salt and turmeric till cooked. Now heat the ghee in a big pot. Add the onions and fry till brown. Add the marinated mutton and cook till the water evaporates. Add the yakhni stock. Add the dal preparation. Mash on slow fire with a wooden mallet over 4 hours till smooth. Add milk and garam masala. Garnish with browned onions, mint leaves, lemon wedges, shredded ginger and sliced green chillies.