Haleem (Khichda) in Slow Cooker

I never had haleem in my life - yeah yeah yeah! I never had haleem in my life untill today when we made it at home. I always wanted to make this since we purchased a slow cooker/crockpot. I never got to making it............. blame it on a lot of things.
I saw a post from Shruti (a friend I made on facebook) on her blog about a vegetarian haleem, the recipe is here - and I wanted to cook it and eat it ever since. Finally over the weekend, we went to the halal shop and got some 'mutton' and today on this rainy and cold day we had this yummm stuff for dinner along with some yogurt and cucumber/onion salad. The aroma of the spices, the onions friend in ghee and ofcorse the cooked haleem takes you right to heaven.

It is indeed a very rich preparation with all that ghee (clarified butter) and those pulses/dals and those exotic spices. But, at the same time, it is a complete meal packed with proteins and some carbohydrates too. All this one pot meal needs as an accompaniment is some salad and yogurt.
I did not follow any recipe here. Just added all the dals and the cracked wheat and the mutton along with onions, tomatoes and the likes and slow cooked it for almost 9 hours.
The spice mixture did have a spice that was used by Shruti - its called kabab chini or nagkesar or cobra saffron. I just made the spice mixture as I make it for most of the Indian food that I cook at home.
Since it was cooked in the slow cooker - the effort seemed minimal too.
This can surely be cooked in the pressure cooker too. Ofcorse it will cook faster there  and not take 9 hours like the slow cooker - but then, there is something else about slow cooking which makes it very special.

Ingredients

1 pound mutton (boneless pieces)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons yogurt
2 onions - sliced
1 tomato - roughly chopped
11 garlic cloves - grated
1 inch ginger - grated
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
4 teaspoons kashimiri chili powder (more or less as per taste)
4 teaspoons dhaina jeera powder (coriander and cumin powder)
1/4 cup quick oats (I used Quaker oats)
2 teaspoons salt (more or less as per taste)
5 cups water
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup ghee
1 onion - thinly sliced
cilantro for garnish

to grind
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 bay leaves
4 green cardamom pods
7 cloves
1 black cardamom
1 inch cinnamon
4 nagkesar/kabab chini
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns

to soak
1/4 cup moong dal (split green gram)
1/4 cup tuvar dal (split pigeon peas)
1/4 cup masoor dal (split red lentils)
1/4 cup chana dal (split chick peas)
1/4 cup udad dal (split black gram)
1/2 cup cracked wheat
1/4 cup quinoa

Method

Marinate the mutton pieces with the yogurt and the turmeric and let it sit for atleast 2 hours - overnight is best.
Wash the ingredients under the 'to soak' heading about 4 times and then add enough water and let them soak for 2 hours.
Dry roast the ingredients under the 'to grid' heading untill a nice aroma comes about. Let it cool and then grind it to a fine powder in a spice grinder.
In a karahi, add the 1/4 cup oil. When it gets hot, add the 2 onions and fry till they get a nice golden brown. Add the ginger and garlic and fry for about 3 to 4 minutes till the raw smell of the garlic disappears.
Get the crockpot/slow cooker started - Put in the onions and the ginger garlic first. Add the mutton pieces next along with the chopped tomatoes. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, dhania jeera powder the ground spice mixture. Now add the soaked dals and cracked wheat. Add 5 cups of water and give it a nice mix with a spoon to get all the powders mixed well with the water. Put the crockpot on high for 5 hours and cover it.
After 5 hours, the dal and wheat  will have cooked and the meat will be tender. With a hand mixer/blender, blend the mixture well till you get a nice porridge consistency. If the mixture is very thick, add about half cup of water and mix well. Now add oats and salt and mix it again. Put the crockpot on low this time and cover and cook for 3 to 4 hours.
In the meantime, fry the 1 onion that is thinly sliced in the 1/4 cup of ghee untill it is brown and crispy. Keep it aside.After 3 to 4 hours of slow cooking on low, the haleem is ready. Check it for salt or spice and add according to your liking.
To serve Haleem - take a serving in a bowl, add a teaspoon (you can add more if you like) of the ghee in which the onions were fried, garnish with chopped cilantro and fried onions - serve with a side of salad and yogurt.

This recipe yielded 7 servings of Haleem.

Haleem is essentially made with beef or mutton - but, it can be made with chicken too. You can also make a vegetarian version by adding veggies like carrots, potatoes, beans, bell peppers along with some soy nuggets (nutella).