Special Haleem Biryani from Rehman Biryani, Meerut

 

The historical city of Meerut is only an hour’s drive from Delhi thanks to the new Delhi-Meerut Expressway or National Expressway 3. The city is the second largest city in the NCR and the the 26th most populous city in India. That means a lot of hungry people and lots of good street food!

Rehman Biryani near Ghant Ghar (Clock Tower) is an iconic place know for it’s haleem biryani. Started in 1967 by Isaad bhai, this joint started as a small cart in Meerut. Haji Mohammed Rehman bhai established the current premises and till today the eatery makes only one dish – Haleem Biryani!

Haleem is a rich and delectable meat stew, popular in the Middle East and Asia. This one pot dish normally contains meat, broken wheat, lentils and a variety of spices. The city of Nizams, Hyderabad is know for it’s haleem during the holy month of Ramadan. The origin of Haleem lies in the popular Arabian dish known as Harees (or Jareesh) Harees was introduced in the Indian subcontinent by the Arab soldiers of the Hyderabad Nizam's army to the city. Today, Jarees is still available in the the old city area of Hyderabad, an area called Barkas. The modern haleem evolved from this to suit the Indian palate.

This dish is slow cooked for seven to eight hours and then vigorously stirred or beaten with a pestle-like stirring stick. This results in a paste-like consistency, blending the flavors of spices, meat, barley and wheat. In the end the cooked haleem is garnished with fried onions, julienne cut ginger, sliced green chillies, coriander leaves, lemon wedges and chaat masala.

Rehman Biryani’s haleem is different from it’s Hyderbadi counterpart. The haleem in Meerut uses a variety of dals, broken wheat, green chillies, an array of spices and is sometimes is called as daleem for it’s dal like appearance. The meat is precooked and added to the daleem towards the end. The meat is deboned and sliced before it is cooked and you do get to bite into these meat slices when you are relishing this unique daleem.

A simple yakhni biryani is made alongside this delicious daleem. To serve, the biryani is scooped into a shallow stainless steel bowl and topped with this golden yellow daleem. Garnished with crushed fried onions, chaat masala and a wedge of lemon, this is dish worth your time driving to Meerut!

A portion of this Daleem or Haleem Biryani costs only Rs 70 and one can identify the shop near Ghanta Ghar by it’s hude crowd waiting to relish this biryani. Rehman Biryani is managed by his four sons and the eatery is open from 10 am to 4 pm everyday.