When I crave something traditional on a busy weekend, beef tehari is the first thing that comes to my mind. What can be better than something that’s delicious to eat and minimizes your hassles at the same time? If I go for plain rice, I have to cook other dishes to accompany it. But if I make tehari, then I can surely save my energy by not cooking other curries or dishes.
Tehari is a Bangladeshi traditional dish that originated from a dish of Awadhi origin from India, called “Tehri”. While “Tehri” was actually vegetable biriyani consisting of yellow rice and potato, Bangladeshi “Tehari ” consists of rice and small chunks of meat.
In traditional Bangladeshi Tehari, you will enjoy the deliciousness of fragrant rice along with delightful curried meat and green chillies. The authentic old Dhaka tehari is cooked with mustard oil, but like my mother, I cook tehari simply with olive or canola oil when mustard oil is unavailable.
The cooking process and fat level are what distinguish tehari from biriyani. In biriyani – Rice, meat, and potatoes are cooked individually in ghee or clarified butter before being piled throughout cooking. Tehari, on the other hand, is fried in oil, and the cooked beef is then put into rice and blended together while it cooks. I saw my mom often add tomatoes to the biriyani, but I rarely do that.
I love it when Tehari bursts inside my mouth with its wholesome flavor. There is no going back once you try it! I don’t need a special occasion to make this fragrant rice with beef curry. This is also my go-to rice dish when I have unexpected company. Normally, I keep shami kababs in the freezer and, if I’m lucky, I find some chutneys in the fridge. All I need to do then is to cook tehari, fry the kababs while the rice cooks, and make a simple salad. This is it, you get a tempting and delicious meal in front of you. A meal that’s worth each and every bit of it!
Tehari’s cooking time is also less than that of a heavy biryani dish. However its contents, notably the meat, homemade or authentic ghee, and other spices, make the dish tasty and flavorsome. Tehari is the ideal menu for making your guests happy with a delicious meal. You can just serve it with a delicious salad. It is also suitable as a tiffin meal for your kiddos. This meal is high in nutrition and energy, so you don’t have to worry about your children’s nutrition.
There are some people who try out tehari with mutton too. However, I consider “beef tehari” to be the classic, and it will always be my personal favourite.
Today, I am going to present my own tehari recipe, which you can cook with beef, mutton, or even chicken. Though the cooking time for the beef tehari dish is a bit lengthy, the cooking process is quite simple. In this writing, I’ll show you how to make a restaurant-style tehari at home! If you try this Beef Tehari recipe, you’ll definitely be mesmerized by the extraordinary combination of fragrant rice and curried beef, complemented by the aroma of exclusive and tempting spices!
At many festivals and household celebrations, everyone enjoys eating beef tehari dishes. Beef tehari is often purchased from several Biryani restaurants as well. Many people don’t prefer to prepare beef tehari at home, as home-cooked Tehari can’t often beat the taste of Teharis made in a restaurant. However, home-made teharis are fresh, healthy, and often uniquely delicious. Most importantly, they keep you connected to your tradition and festivity.
You can prepare beef tehari in a simple method if you want, and you can also cook it in a restaurant style following our instructions. Let’s start by learning how to cook tehari in a mouth-watering way!
This recipe will facilitate everyone to cook delicious tehari at their home in an easy way. You can serve this Tehari as a main dish with green salad, pickles, and borhany at various social events.
So, what do you think? Is this a hard thing to try? Absolutely not. You can prepare delicious beef tehari at home this way. This beef tehari dish is really delicious and ensures that you need to put a minimum effort into it. You can serve it at your minimal birthday party or your office lunchbox too. Don’t forget to try this and share it with your family!
Ingredients
- 700 g beef / mutton (1 1/2 lbs)
- 500 g pulao rice or fine rice basmati, chinigura , kali jeera, etc
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 8 green chilis
- 1 cup cooking oil
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 2 tsp kewra water
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 5 cardamom pods
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 whole cloves
- 1/2 tsp peppercorns
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
- 1 tbsp ginger paste
- 1 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp mace powder
- 1 tsp nutmeg powder
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Cut the meat into small pieces.
- Grind cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorn and make them into powder.
- Add all the powdered spices, salt, ginger, garlic, yogurt, mustard oil with the meat and mix very well.
- Marinate for at least 30-60 minutes. For best results, marinate for 5-6 hours before cooking.
- While the meat is marinating, rinse and soak the rice (especially if it is Basmati rice) for at least 30-60 minutes.
- When the onions turn light brown, add chilis. Depending on how spicy you want, you can make slits on the chilis or use them whole. Add the marinated meat and mix well for 5 minutes. Cover and cook in low medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. The meat should release water and should cook in the same water. Keep an eye on the meat so that the water from meat does not evaporate in those 10-15 minutes and the meat does not burn.
- Warm oil in a pot and add onions. Add 1 cup of warm water, stir and cover. Cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes until the meat is tender and the water has evaporated.
- Remove only the meat, leaving the oil and spices in the pot.
- Add rice to the oil and fry.
- Add 4 cups of warm water and salt. Mix well and cook for 5 minutes. When the rice starts bubbling, add the cooked meat and gently stir. Keep flame in low heat and cook for 10 minutes.
- Uncover, add Kewra water and stir very gently so that the rice do not break. Cover and cook in low heat for 15 minutes. Turn off the flame, stir the Tehari gently and leave it covered for 5-10 minutes.
- Serve warm with salad.
Notes
- Serve it hot because it will lose its flavor if it cools down. Serve with fresh salad or raita salad.
- This recipe will facilitate everyone to cook delicious tehari at their home in an easy way. Tehari is served as a main dish with green salad, pickles, and Borhany at various social events.
