Haleem - Slow Cooker Style

Ingredients

1.5lb lamb pieces, thawed
1 whole onion thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves chopped
2 cloves (long)
small fragment of cinnamon stick (size of your pinky toe)
half an onion chopped (to add before turning the cooker on, optional)
1 bay leaf (to add before turning cooker on, optional)

3tbs garlic/ginger paste
2tbs laal mirch
2tbs zeera powder
1tbs garam masala
1tbs haldi powder
1tbs zeera
1.5tbs of shaan haleem masala (optional)
salt to taste

1 cup rice
1 cup chana daal
1/4 cup urd/maas daal
1/4 cup mung daal
1/4 cup barely (haleem grains)

Directions:


proportions might vary depending on how much stuff you have or want to cook. been a little off but those are the basic measurements. the lamb pieces were put in with the bone and they cooked and shredded on their own in the cooker overnight for the most part

i let a huge onion (cut into thin slices) cook in some olive oil until it was golden brown. added zeera, minced garlic, and the lamb. topped it off with laal mirch, zeera powder, garam masala, haldi, and salt. added 2tbsp of garlic/ginger paste. added a bit of water and let it cook down the spices nicely

combine everything in the slow cooker (grains + meat/masala mixture), add a generous amount of water, and throw in a TINY fragment of a cinnamon stick, a couple of cloves, and half an onion chopped. once before i also added a bay leaf and it gave a nice deep flavor. set the cooker on low and TADA!

i stirred it on a couple of different times and added water each time if i felt the mixture was getting too thick. i turned the cooker on with all the ingredients at 8pm and by 8am it was done. i checked on it around midnight then after fajr. when we were going to eat it i added some more water and turned the cooker on again to let it get to a nice simmer

serve with french bread and the usual garnishings.

note: some people soak the grain mix for a few hours, but the last couple of times i used the slow cooker i just added the grains after rinsing them a few times. when i made it stove-top style, i did soak the grains for faster cooking. ive made the cooker haleem with 1.5lb of boneless chicken cut into bite sized pieces before, also, and it turns out nice.