September 7, 2022

Beef Tehari

Bangladeshi one-pot beef & rice dish. The rice is cooked in the beef curry gravy, then everything is steamed together for a delicious and aromatic experience!

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Total Time 1 30

Course Main Course

Cuisine bangladeshi, bengali, south asian

Servings 12

Equipment

Pressure cooker Instant Pot

Ingredients

Beef Marinade:

3 lbs beef, cut into small pieces
1 cup diced onions
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp red chili powder
4 green chilies, minced
1/2 cup yogurt

Beef Curry:

1/2 cup mustard oil
1 cup sliced onions
2 bay leaves
10-15 whole black peppers
2-3 cinnamon sticks
4 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp kewra

Rice:

4 cups basmati rice
1/4 cup mustard oil
1/4 cup ghee
1 cup sliced onions
1 tsp salt

Finishing:

10-12 green chilies
3-4 tbsp mustard oil

Instructions

Beef Marinade:

Combine all the ingredients listed under Beef Marinade and marinate overnight if possible.

Beef Curry:

In the Instant Pot, heat mustard oil on sauté mode. Add sliced onions and whole spices (bay leaves, whole black peppers, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, cloves, and cumin seeds). Sauté until onions are golden.
Add marinated beef and sauté for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Then add 1.5 cups water and pressure cook for 18 minutes.
Do either a manual or natural release, then put it back on sauté mode for about 10 minutes (uncovered) to allow the liquid to reduce. Add the kewra.
Strain the gravy from the beef pieces. In a bowl, measure the gravy and add water to it to get a total of 8 cups liquid. Set aside.

Rice:

Have basmati rice soaking in water for 30 minutes while you cook the beef. Then drain the rice well.
In a large pot, heat mustard oil and ghee. Add sliced onions and sauté until golden. Add the rice and stir fry for about 5 minutes.
Add the gravy + water, followed by salt. Taste the liquid to determine if additional salt is needed.
Cook uncovered on medium/high heat until the liquid boils and starts to reduce. The rice and liquid should be level with each other (should take about 15 mins).
Then cover, lower the heat, and continue cooking until all the liquid has been absorbed (should be another 15 mins).

Finishing:

Preheat oven to 325°.
Add the meat to the rice pot, along with green chilies, and gently combine. Drizzle some more mustard oil on top and cover. Place in the oven and allow everything to steam together (about 15 minutes). Enjoy!

Keyword beef, tehari

What is Beef Tehari?

Beef Tehari is an authentic Bangladeshi beef and rice dish that’s filled with the aromas of mustard oil and green chilies. It’s a one dish meal that hardly needs any accompaniments. It differs from biryani in the sense that biryani is a layered dish, while with a tehari, everything is combined well. The way the rice is prepared is also different. The special part of tehari is that the rice is cooked in the gravy of the beef curry. This makes it super flavorful and aromatic!

The Steps, in a Nutshell

So yes, making tehari is time consuming. This is not a shortcut recipe. But the results are so authentic and worth it! To cut down on time, I use the Instant Pot to cook the beef curry. You can use any pressure cooker or even do it on the stovetop (will take much longer).

Essentially, there are 3 parts to making tehari:

1. cook the beef curry

2. cook the rice in the beef curry gravy

3. combine everything and steam