History of Harisa/Harees هريس
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· 10th-century cookbook Kitab Al Tabikh
· 13th-century Andalusian cookbook Kitab Fadalat al-khiwan
National dish of Armenia
According to Armenian lore, Gregory the Illuminator order to cook a meal of love and charity to the poor. There weren't enough sheep to feed the crowds so wheat was added to the cooking pots. They noticed that the wheat was sticking to the bottom of the cauldrons. Saint Gregory advised, "Harekh! Stir it!" Thus, the name of the dish, harissa, came from the saint's own words. Since then till now the dish is traditionally served on Easter day.
Iran
· Persian author Magaret Shaida believes that harees was born into royalty courtesy King Khuosrow of Persia in the 6th century. And, a century later, to Caliph Mu’aviya of Damascus, who made harees in the honour of the Arabian Yemenis delegation, thus introducing a practice of serving harees as a welcome meal to visitors and travellers alike. Ibn Batutta’s 14th century travelogue mentions that the gooey food was served in a bowlful to weary souls and exhausted soldiers alike.
· In seventh century Khalifa Bani Umia returns from a trip to Arabia after returning to his newly won Iraq and Persian lands. He been tasted a kind of Harees type thing over there, So one day day he met so Yemenite Jews whom he asks to prepare the porrige he tasted while in other versions, he approaches locals. This story should be taken with a grain of salt as the author penned the story three centuries after it supposedly occurred. At the very least, harisa was prevalent as a Levantine dish.
(History Book Kitab Al-Tabikh by Ibn Al Karim)
Yemen
One of the oldest dish and it is made of barley and meat (usually lamb) that are cooked until the fibres break down and it becomes almost like a thick paste. It was a long and tedious process that required a lot of muscle power stirring the thick mixture as it cooked in a large pot for many hours. By late evening, when the meat breaks down and the mixture reduces, it is transferred into a smaller pot. This is then placed overnight inside a tandoor where it cooks and stays warm in the gentle heat of the oven.
Customers usually line up right after the early morning prayer, while it is still dark outside, to buy the Hareesa. It was relatively expensive, since a good Hareesa contains more meat than barley.
Saudi Arabia - Jereesh Areesa
Harees is one of the oldest dishes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is considered a staple during the holy month of Ramadan. The spices used to cook harees depend largely on the region you find yourself in, though in most cases cardamom, cumin, and cinnamon are used.
Over the time people have experimented with the authentic ingredients and recipe, cooking it in a few different ways and giving it various names.
United Arab Emirates
The dish was the focus of a weekly event at Al Ain Palace Museum, UAE, That took place every Friday throughout the holy month of Ramadhan. Museum officials invited visitors to learn more about the dish – how it’s made and the ingredients used. Visitors came with their own plates to fill with harees or they took home neatly created packages with a container of the dish, plus a small tub of ghee. Each package contained information about the dish in a range of languages. The literature explained the significance of the dish, especially of wheat which in the past was cultivated by Al Ain residents.
Egyptian Cuisines
In Egyptian cuisine, "freekeh", unripened, crushed durum wheat, was used to cook harisa, giving the resulting ferik a unique green hue.
Zanzibari
In Zanzibar, the dish is called boko boko and may be cooked with lamb, beef, or chicken
Ethiopia
Harees is a popular dish mainly in the Oromo region. It is cooked with lamb or beef and topped with dhadhaa/kibbeh and served on Eid or special occasions such as the birth of a baby.
Hareesa is popular in many parts of Somalia. In Brava, it was prepared by Bravanese of Yemeni origin. It was not sold, but the families who prepared it used to send hot Hareesa to friends. It was their way of sharing the joy of Eid.
India
· The graduation of the nomadic harees to the royal haleem (given a GI status), however, began with the Nizam lending a piece of land for the Chaush to settle down. Called the ‘mini Yemen’ in Hyderabad, Barkas’ market became the first place where Hyderabadis were introduced to the harees, both in savoury and sweet form. Hyderabad, which was by then used to much spicier meals and dishes may have found the harees bland and could have made a few modifications of their own, creating the first iteration of haleem.
· End of the Mughal dynasty, Nizams began creating their own style stamps – one of the iconic dishes that emerged was the haleem. The rise of haleem as a Ramzan/Ramadhan dish had also to do with its nourishing nature.
Both harees and haleem are made with mutton and wheat. The difference is not only in their ancestry but also in the ratio in which the main ingredients are used. Haleem is spicier and has lentils added to it as well.
Hyderabad has two versions of harees – the khari and the meethi. Khari, true to its name, is bland by Hyderabadi standards and available at majority of the harees outlets and the meethi has sugar mixed with it which is available only in the Barkas area
Pakistan
· Emperor Humayun, who made harees a part of his post-prayer meal, was first introduced to the nourishing comfort food while in exile in Persia. It stayed a favorite much through the dynasty rule, albeit with a few tweaks added as generations passed. So there is a strong likelihood that the future Nizam had the taste of harees even before the Chaush (Muslim community of Hadhrami Arab who became Nizam’s bodyguards) brought it along with them to his court. This is supported by the evidence of the existence of a similar dish, the Kashmiri harissa, albeit made with rice that uses spice (green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and whole fennel seeds) infused mustard oil for tempering instead of ghee.
· After the partition in 1947, there are lots of Muslim from Kashmir migrates and settled down in Punjab mostly in Lahore, Gujranwala and Pindi. They are the one who start making commercially Harissa as street food in winters.
In Lahorei recipes some of them add whole moong beans and mini seekh kebab with lots of desi ghee and saffron
Kashmiri Harissa
The Kashmiri harissa is a mash similar to the Armenian and the West Asian harees, the Persian dizi and the Hyderabadi haleem. The kind of bread commonly preferred dizi is sangak, an Iranian traditional bread.
Harissa came to Kashmir in the 14th century, and the Srinagar city has been since. Harissa for breakfast keeps a person warm all through the day even in freezing temperatures and is believed to ward off many diseases related to cold climate.
Preparation
The wheat is soaked overnight and then simmered in water along with meat and butter or sheep tail fat. Any remaining liquid is strained and the mixture is beaten and seasoned. Harees may be garnished with cinnamon, sugar, and clarified butter.
Harissa Recipe
Ingredients
1 kg Boneless chicken/mutton/beef
1 cup Green lentil (soaked)
2 cup Cracked wheat grain (soaked)
½ cup Rice (soaked)
2 large Onion (sliced)
1 pod Garlic (skinless)
8 Green chilies (chopped)
3 tsp Red chili powder
1 tsp Crushed black pepper
2 tsp Dry coriander powder
3 tsp Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
For Mini Kebab
½ kg Beef/chicken minces
3 tsp Red chili powder
3 tsp Cumin powder
3 tsp Salt
Oil for fry
For Baghaar
1 cup Clarified butter
3 tsp Crushed cumin
Instructions
In a skillet put meat, green lentil, onion, garlic, chopped green chilies, red chili powder, and crushed black pepper. dry coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt and 3 glasses of water and cook until meat soft. (Water quantity may vary according to meat)
In another skillet put rice, wheat grain, salt and 4 glass of water. Cover and cook until the wheat grain turns soft.
Mix grains in the meat mixture. Grind the mixture coarsely.
Now put all the ground mixture, in a skillet. Cook it over medium high heat until you get the desired consistency.
Add mini kabab, pour baghar over Harissa and serve hot with hot naan.
For Mini Kebab
Mix all ingredients of the mini kebab.
Make mini finger kebab and shallow fry in hot oil.
For Baghar
Heat clarified butter, and sputter crushed cumin until the aroma arises.
Pour over Harissa
In a huge earthen pot, rice gruel is prepared, preferably with the short-grained, sticky Kashmiri rice. Into this go whole sheep legs (though goat meat makes the best Harissa), fennel seeds, cinnamon, green and black cardamom, cloves, crispy fried Kashmiri shallots and salt. Around an hour-and-a-half into the cooking, the narrow-necked earthen pot is closed with a lid. This is when Harissa-makers steal a few hours of sleep.
Around 4 am (the cooking begins around 10-11pm) they wake up. With a metallic ‘hand’ fitted to a long handle, the bones, from which the meat has fallen off, are removed. Into this meaty slush is poured smoking mustard oil; the mixture is mashed with the help of a long wooden masher until there is a blend of fat, protein and carbohydrates with the consistency of as haleem.
Serving
Harisa is a pretty simple, home style food which doesn’t require spectacular plating and extravagant decoration. Its seasoning is pretty bland originally.
Kashmiri Harissa is mostly available and eaten during winters. This recipe is served best with Kashmiri bread locally called Kulch, Kander Czout and Girda
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