Various dishes are cooked with beef at the Qurbani Eid, and the thick parts attached to the hide, or certain parts of the skin, are often cooked separately. Haleem made with beef skin is a popular traditional dish in various regions of the country.

Made from skin boiled for a long time together with lentils and spices, the dish is both tasty and quite nutritious. If you want to give your Eid meals a slightly different flavour, you can make beef skin haleem at home. Here is a simple recipe.

Boil the beef skin in hot water for a while. Then scrape off the hair and dirt from the surface thoroughly with a spoon or knife. Cut the cleaned skin into small pieces and boil it in a pressure cooker for 4-5 whistles.

Wash all the lentils and the rice together well and soak them for 30 minutes. Then boil the lentils and rice thoroughly with enough water and a little salt and turmeric, and mash them partly with a lentil masher.

Heat oil in a pot, fry sliced onions until brown and lift them out as beresta (crisp fried onion). In the same oil, fry ginger paste, garlic paste, turmeric, chilli, coriander and cumin powder and the haleem spice mix from the packet with a little water. When the spices are cooked, add the boiled beef skin and fry it over medium heat for 10-15 minutes.

Pour the boiled lentil mixture into the spiced skin and add another 2-3 cups of lukewarm water. Stir often so that it does not stick to the bottom. Cook over low heat for half an hour until the haleem turns sticky. When it has thickened, sprinkle garam masala powder, roasted cumin powder and ghee on top and take it off the heat. The beef skin haleem is ready. Serve this delicious dish with fried onions, chopped coriander leaves, chopped ginger, green chillies and lemon juice.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.