Saturday, October 18, 2014

Mum's Recipe: Hyderabadi Harees




I will cut short to the ingredients this time but just to save you some thinking, this recipe is easy to cook but requires some muscular efforts in the end to mash it up all together!

Ingredients:

1) 1 Kg Chicken
2) 1 and half cup Wheat grains
3) 1 Tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste
4) 1 Table spoon Garam Masala
5) 1 and half teaspoon Crushed Black Pepper
6) 3/4 cup Yogurt (whipped)
7) 1 Onion
8) A cup of Cashews (Optional)
9) A cup of Oil/Ghee (Split in half)
10)Lots of butter/ghee

Preps:

1) Soak wheat for 2 hours. Then using a pressure cook (That's what I did) cook it until its half done. Keep aside.

Tip: To avoid some hard work, use chopper and chop your half done wheat. DO NOT make a paste just into some pieces.

2) Make Chicken Broth: Dump all your chicken into the boiling water and let it all cook. Separate chicken from broth. And then bones from the meat :D Keep aside the chicken not the bones!

3) Take half of the cashews and make paste with water. ( Optional)


Method:

1) Use pressure cooker. Heat half cup of ghee then throw in your spices, ginger garlic paste and in the end yogurt. Keep stirring! Once you can smell all the aroma add cashew paste. Stir for a while again.

2) Add wheat, chicken and broth all together. Close your cooker now and keep it on low heat.

3) Once your chicken and wheat are blended and you think your wheat is well cooked, get ready for the fun part. Using a heavy wooden hand mixer, mash up everything and keep adding some water and butter. You do not want it to get thicker!

So, this hand mixer is easily available in Pakistani/Indian markets and you can see it in the picture above. We can also use machines but the hand mixing gives it rich and traditional texture. In Urdu we call it "Ghota" .

While mixing/blending, add 1-2 tablespoon at a time and then use some water. Don't worry wheat absorbs both really fast.

4) This is your tardka: In another pot, heat remaining oil/ghee, add your sliced onions and cook until almost brown then add cashews. When onions are brown add this to your Harees mixture and close the lid!

And Tadaaaa you are done!




Do you have some lemons? Serve your Harees with them :D


Blunders & Tips:

Garam masala was way too less in my Harees. So, I used my Maa's advice and added some garam masala to tardka (Oil and onions) and added to my Harees. Doesn't make a difference :)

Ask a male member to do the hand mixing / Ghota, my arms were aching all night. But worth it.

This dish requires a long time, so keep the serving time in mind. 

Serve some butter/ghee along. I did not and my family complained :/



Happy Cooking 
xx




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