HYDERABAD: In Hyderabad, haleem is not a dish. It’s an emotion. In today’s fast and ‘instant’ world, the process of making haleem on slow fire for hours is a sort of aberration. Despite the fact that the delicacy is available throughout the year now, people wait patiently for the Ramzan month when various haleem counters mushroom in the city.
Pista House, a popular eatery chain in the city, has been synonymous with Hyderabadi haleem for years. With branches in the USA and Qatar, they have brought the dish global recognition. However, behind the phenomenal popularity of the dish are the labour and sweat of hundreds of workers who are recruited especially for preparing haleem. We visit Pista House’s haleem making unit in Nanalnagar and find out what goes behind the scenes. The visit was arranged by Novotel Hyderabad Airport.
The process
Work starts at the crack of dawn at 4 am when the mutton, sourced from local vendors, are put on boil with green chillies on the freshly-made bhattis. The bhattis are ovens made from bricks and red mud. A huge cauldron is put inside the bhatti with only the opening remaining outside. This is done to ensure that ample heat, generated by firewood in this case, reaches all the sides of the vessel. The meat is boiled for 7-8 hours and then put on ‘dum’ for some two hours.
The whole process is accompanied by frequent rounds of mashing the meat which is done with big wooden ladles called ‘ghota’. This is where the hard work of the workers comes in. At a time, two or three workers work in tandem to mash the ingredients with the ‘ghota’, eventually giving the dish its meaty and paste-like texture. The process is called ‘kunda maarna’ locally. The work not only requires physical strength, but an ability to bear the blazing heat generated by the bhattis which have been lighted since early morning. When I ask a worker how he puts up with the heat, he smiles and says, “We are used to it.” Outside the production unit, a couple of coolers have been installed. Workers sit in front of the coolers after each vigorous session of working the ghotas. A few men are seen peeling ginger and garlic to be used in the preparation later.
There are around 20 bhattis in the haleem manufacturing unit, which is a shed made in the open. Each cauldron can accommodate 100 kg of mutton and other ingredients.C Naresh, who is a supervisor at the unit, says: “We have 300 workers in the unit. They have been hired exclusively to make haleem this month. They come from various professional backgrounds like tailoring, carpentry etc. Once the work is done, they return to their native places. We have people from city outskirts like Shadnagar and other states including Karnataka and Maharashtra. A person needs to be fit for this kind of work. A few of them have been coming here for the last 15-20 years. If we find that someone is not fit to work the ghota, we assign him some other work.”
The ingredients
Mohammed Ibrahim Iqbal, an executive in Pista House, says: “In one cauldron, there are 100 kg mutton, 18kg wheat rawa, one kg rice, eight litres of sunflower oil and eight litres of ghee. We also add Urad dal, Tur dal and Chana dal, along with spices. We use only mineral water, and from this year, we have started using Manipuri black rice to make haleem. This variety of rice, which is known to have high nutrition value, is being introduced in collaboration with the Northeast Foundation.” Throwing light on the spice mix, he adds, “The spice mix has salt, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, Shah jeera, rose buds and other ingredients. It is added to the mix before the cauldron is put on dum.”
Putting on ‘dum’
After the ingredients have been mashed sufficiently and all the spices have been added, the haleem mix is put on dum. This is done by first putting out the fire with water. Then the opening in the bhatti, through which firewood is introduced, is sealed with a tin sheet and wet mud. This is done to ensure that the heat does not escape the oven. The haleem is then kept that way for a couple of hours. After that,
there is another session of masticating the mix. Then it is transferred into airtight canisters and transported to different outlets in the city.