Week 28 - Iran - حلیم

HALEEM

Over the past few years I've become quite enamored with Persian cuisine.  With it's abundance of herbs, unique ingredients and sweet and sour flavour combinations it draws me in every time.  So on a recent outing to Khorak Supermarket (my favourite Persian grocery store in Toronto), I was stoked to come across a pre-made container of Haleem, a traditional Persian breakfast often eaten during Ramadan.

I usually prefer to make breakfasts as home, but Haleem although simple in ingredients (wheat and turkey) requires long hours of cooking.  (Before modern kitchen appliances it was simmered all night long in large wood-fired cauldrons.)  In fact, it is such a long process to make that it is tradition to make a huge patch and then go door to door sharing it with your neighbours.  

It's a distant cousin to Khichdi, which you may recall from Week 3: Indian Breakfast.  Basically, it's a thick porridge made from meat (usually turkey) and wheat that is simmered until the texture of both becomes a homogenous mush.  It's   often garnished with clarified butter and cinnamon.

Unfortunately we found this breakfast a little underwhelming.  It was neither sweet or savoury.  The turkey taste was definitely present and so was the sweet cinnamon topping.  Perhaps it's one of those breakfasts you have to grow up with because mainly we just found it confusing.

After mentioning our Haleem experience to some of my co-workers, one of them remarked that she had made some herself that week-end!  She was generous enough to bring in some of her homemade stuff so that I could compare.

Her version was a variation from Ethiopia and was considerably more delicious that the Iranian grocery brand.  Instead of turkey it was made with goat and being from Ethiopia, the cinnamon was replaced with spicy Berbere butter.

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:

For Degree of Separation:

Wheat, cinnamon and turkey are not a combo I ever imagined gracing my breakfast table.

For Guestability:

I imagine if you had guests from Persia they would adore it, but for my family, probably not.

For Sustainability:

Supposedly very calorically dense, this is a stick to your ribs kind of dish.

For Costability:

With a price similar to a box of Cheerios, Haleem was very reasonably priced.

For Overall Appeal:

I really wanted to like Haleem.  Unfortunately, it was just a little too far out of my comfort zone.  As an aside, I would like to urge everyone who hasn't sample Persian cuisine to give it a shot.

Next time - the Balkans!