Mutton Tehari/Tehri in Dhaka Style

Ever since my son was born, our timetable has become quite compact. In our busy lifestyle, all our meals for the next day are always planned the previous night. It was Saturday. We sit down after our dinner on our couch and as we plan our next day, we realize that it is weekend. Weekend calls for a lot of household work at home. Also, it is the day of the week we have good food, unlike most other working days when I cook in a hurry to reach my office on time. So, during the weekends, I refrain from going outside and prefer to do my favorite job “cooking.”

Ok, so my husband tells me, why don’t you make biriyani tomorrow? It has been long since you have made biriyani.

I tell him I will make tehari tomorrow. He asks me, what is that? I tell him, It is a Dhaka style dish which is a combination of rice and meat with lots of spices.

He asks me Is this not biriyani? I tell him No.

What is the difference?

I will tell you, as I cook.

And then I start the preparation of the tehari a night before, with marinating the meat.

Meat cooked with rich spices, followed by rice cooked in the spices of meat makes a good tehari.

Buying meat for tehari

Traditionally, tehari calls for smaller pieces of meat. So, remember to ask your butcher to make smaller pieces of meat if you are planning to make tehari. Also, the meat should have a bit of fat on it. The fat on the meat makes the meat of the tehari juicy and soft. Tehari can also be prepared with beef similarly.

Marinating the meat

I always prefer marinating my meat for any meat dish. I have tried both with and without marinating and found a huge difference in taste.

Choosing the rice

In Bangladesh, Tehri is prepared with kalijeera rice. However, if it is not available you can use a good quality Basmati rice. Also, in this dish the amount of meat is always higher in comparison to the amount of meat taken.

As no red chili powder is used in cooking the recipe, you need to add lot of green chilies to the dish. Staying abroad and not getting good hot chilies here, I have lost my resistance to heat. so, if you think that the number of green chilies added here is less, feel free to increase the heat quotient according to your choice.

I always prefer cooking meat without a pressure pot. Pressure cooking the meat often spoils the texture of the meat. But, if you prefer to save time and gas consumption, you can also use a pressure pot to cook the meat.

Serving mutton tehari

Mutton tehari is served with burhani raita and salad.

Ah!!! by the way we had a great weekend. Hopefully yours was great too!!!!!!

Step by step instructions to prepare mutton tehari

Marinade the mutton with salt, ginger paste, garlic paste, 2 tablespoons of the prepared masala, 8-10 green chilies(slit or finely chopped), yogurt, black pepper, 2 tablespoons of oil and let it rest for 2 hours to overnight.

Dry roast all the spices listed under “for the masala” and grind them to a fine powder.

Wash the rice properly. Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes. Drain the water. Spread the rice on a clean cloth and let it air dry.

Take a deep bottomed pot and add the oil to the pot and heat it.

As the oil becomes hot add the thinly sliced onions and fry them to golden brown. Your “beresta” is ready.

Now, add the marinated mutton to the pot and mix everything properly.

Cook the mutton covered on medium low flame. The mutton oozes out lot of water, hence you will not have to add any water to the mutton.

Continue cooking the mutton with stirring at intervals for about 45-50 minutes.

After the mutton is cooked properly, reduce the flame and remove all the mutton pieces in a separate bowl.

To the oil and the spices in the pot, add the rice. Saute the rice for 3-5 minutes on low to medium flame or till the rice turns translucent.

To the rice now, add 4 cups of warm water and 1 cup of milk. (Total 5 cups which is double the amount of rice)

Also, add the mutton pieces to the pot along with 2-4 green chilies and kewra water.

Cook the rice covered for 10 minutes on high flame. You can stir once or twice in between. Now, reduce the flame to low medium and continue cooking.

Once all the water is absorbed and the rice is almost completely done, add the ghee to the tehari. You can give a gentle stir but be careful not to break the rice.

Turn off the flame and keep the tehari covered till you are ready to serve. Serve mutton tehari hot with burhani and some salad.

Thank you for stopping by. If you like the recipe do not forget to hit like. If you prepare this dish and publish your photos on Facebook and Instagram do tag #theepicureanfeast. Also for queries, you can mail me epicureanfeast2019@gmail.com