Perfect Haleem!

Hyderabadi Haleem, the most favoured dish by every hyderabadi. A perfect haleem cant be compared with any other dish. In Ramazan the city is full of vendors selling different kinds fruits and delicious haleem.
I remember the best haleem being cooked by my best friends Mom.I used to love eating haleem cooked by her.Oh !I must say she is a great cook and luckily this Ramadan she happened to be in the States, I called her and took the recipe from her.I bet u will love this haleem.
This is my another entry for the event Joy from fasting to feasting.

Ingredients:
Wheat grains 1lbs
Mutton or beef 3 lbs
Gram lentils(chana dal, urad dal,moong dal) 2 cups
Onions 4 (medium size, thinly sliced)
Ginger and garlic paste 3 tbsp
Whole garam masala:
Shazeera/ caraway seeds: 2 tsp
Dalchini / cinnamom sticks 2 (1' 1/2 inch each)
Whole black pepper / sabith Kalimirchi 2 tsp
Kabab chini 1 tsp
Cloves 4 nos
one cup of chopped coriander
one cup of chopped mint
slit green chillies 8-9
red chilli powder 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
curd 1/2 pound
oil
Ghee/butter
lemon juice 1 cup
For Garnishing
Mint leaves
coriander leaves
lemon wedges
fried kaju/cashew nuts

Method
Step 1:
Soak wheat, and lentils overnight and boil with salt and black peppercorns till it is tender and easily mash able.I used hand blender to mash the lentils. keep it aside.

Step 2:
Wash meat and coat it with ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and keep it aside.
Cut onions in thin round slices and fry in oil until golden brown(be careful not to burn onions). Remove and keep it aside( I kept it in freezer for about 15 mins to make it crisper).
You can also use ready to use fried onions which we get in Indian grocery stores.But fresh fried onions give better results.

Step 3:
In a pressure cooker put oil ginger garlic paste fry for a minute add meat, garam masala, kabab chini, chopped green masala, salt, water, curd and boil the meat till it is so tender that it can be separated by hand.(I separated the bones from meat to make it easier to eat).
Mix boiled meat and lentils.

Step 4 :
In a big bowl heat 1 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp ghee and again put one tsp of ginger garlic paste and fry for about a minute add lentils and meat mixture and cook on medium flame for about 20 mins. Lastly add one cup of lemon juice and again some green chopped masala and cook on low flame for abt 20 mins. keep on stirring it with a heavy spoon.

Step 5: Garnish with boiled eggs, fried cashew nuts,chopped green masala, fried onions ghee and serve hot.

Bhajiyas...

I decided to make bhajiyas today, I remember back at home, my mom used to fry a variety of them. Bhajiyas are great for snacking. It is a must in most hyderabadi families at the time of iftar.
This is one of my recipes for the event joy from fasting to feasting.
We generally use chickpea flour for frying bhajiyas.

Ingredients:
2 cup chickpea flour
red chilli powder 1 tsp
Cumin powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1tsp
Ginger garlic paste 1/2 tsp(optional)
Chopped cilantro
a pinch of baking soda
salt to taste
oil for frying.
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl adding enough amount of water so that its consistency is neither thick nor too soupy.We can use this batter right away, but it is better to prepare this batter 2-3 hrs before frying.
Fried Spinach leaves dipped in chickpea flour/ Palak pakodi/palak bhajiyas
Take spinach leaf wash and dip it in the chickpea flour mixture and deep fry it in hot oil.
Try not to burn it .well fried Palak bhajiyas are crispy.


Fried tomato dipped in chickpea flour /Tomato bhajiyas/
Cut a tomato into quarter inch slices and place them on a paper towel so that the water is absorbed. Dip it in the batter and deep fry it.fry well for quite sometime to avoid bhajiyas becoming soggy.

Fried boiled egg /Egg bhajiyas

Boil an egg, remove the shell and use an egg cutter to cut it into fine slices, dip the pieces in the batter and deep fry them.This bhajiyas taste great !

.
Fried potato in chickpea/ aloo bhajiyas.
peel potato and make thin slices, dip and fry,these are everyones favourite !

I tried Jalapeno Poppers too, by deseeding the Jalapenos and filling them with cream cheese. We can use the same batter, but, add an extra coat of cornflour and then di it into the batter again before frying in hot oil.
These turned out to be good but were quite hot, you can use sour cream as a dip for them.

Spicy Boiled Lentil (bengal gram) (ubali hui chane ki dal)

Split chick peas with skin removed is chana dal or Bengal gram ,widely used in Indian food.Quite healthy as it is full of protein.
We usually prepare this boiled dal for iftar as its nutritious and very easy to prepare. This is my ramazan special recipe and goes for the event of "joy from feasting to fasting".

Ingredients:
1 cup chana dal
green chillies 4-5
cilantro 3/4 cup
mint leaves 3/4 cup
fresh lemon one medium sized
black pepper powder a pinch
salt to taste

Method:
Boil chana dal till its very soft but not sticky. To save time of boiling I prefer to soak dal for 3-4 hrs.
Grind or chop finely green chillies, cilantro and mint leaves.
Mix this finely chopped mixture to dal.
Add salt , black pepper and squeeze in fresh lemon juice.
Mix well and serve.



I prepare this quite often and sometimes I substitute the lentils with frozen corn to prepare spicy corn.(add cumin powder if you use corn)

Cracked Wheat Soup

Ramazan Mubarak to all my readers!
This is my first recipe for the event Joy from fasting to feasting hosted by lubna and yasmeen.
Both Lubna and yasmeen are doing great job by posting easy, healthy tips and recipes for iftar and suhoor. well done girls!...
Cracked Wheat soup is full of protein and quite healthy.I hope my readers like and give it a try. Once my neighbor invited us for iftar and made this soup I liked it and took the recipe from him. This soup is quite easy, it is basically cracked wheat cooked in meat and tomato soup.

Raw cracked wheat



Ingredients:
Cracked wheat 1 pound
lamb meat with bones 1 pound
one medium sized onion
2 big tomatoes/ (you can also use tomotao puree if u want)
red chilli powder according to your taste
tumeric powder a pinch
salt to taste
fresh cilantro,green chillies.
garam masala powder(grounded caraway seeds, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom ) 1 tsp
one cube of maggi stock(you can use either mutton or chicken stock, it gives good taste but its optional)
olive oil 2 tbsp( you can use any other cooking oil too)
lemon juice 2 tbsp

Method:
Soak cracked wheat for about one hr.
In a big vessel add olive oil, chopped onions,red chilli powder,tumeric powder, ginger garlic paste, chopped tomatoes, meat and fry for sometime, add ample amount of water and cook till the meat is very tender.( I used a pressure cooker to save time )
add cracked wheat, garam masala, green chillies,maggi stock cube and cook
the consistency should be soupy finally add fresh cilantro, fresh mint and lemon juice. Serve it hot with sliced cucumbers.

Soup ready to be served !