Bachelor’s Special – Tehri
History of Tehri
‘Tehri’ or “Tahari” is a rice dish that includes vegetables, and spices. Tehri originates from Awadhi cuisine and is very popular among bachelors just like khichdi.
It became a very popular dish during the second world war, but when meat prices soared high, potatoes became the best alternative to meat.
It is one of the various variants of biryani, basically, it is a vegetarian dish but in many parts of the country, people also use meat to cook this dish.
Season of Tehri
The taste of tehri is best during the winter season because fresh vegetables are available all over the market.
And, the new variety (naya chawal) of rice enhances the taste of tehri in the winter season.
During the winter season, we cook tehri almost every Sunday in our house for lunch, and in many parts of the Eastern UP, It is part of the Sunday’s lunch menu.
Difference between tehri, khichdi, biryani, and pulao:
| Tehri | Khichdi | Biryani | Pulao |
| Tehri is a combination of rice, vegetables, and spices and is cooked in a pressure cooker. | Khichdi is a combination of rice and dal with tadka. It is also cooked in a pressure cooker. | Biryani is a combination of rice and meat or vegetables or egg or paneer with spices and some fragrance. Normally the utensil in which biryani is cooked is ‘Handi’ and the process of cooking is known as “Dum” | Pulao is cooked all alone with few whole spices. It can be prepared both in a pressure cooker or handi/pateela |
Pure ghee is one of the main ingredients in all the above rice dishes. In English, it’s clarified butter.
Although homemade ghee is best. If you can’t make ghee at home then you can use the popular brands ( Amul, Mother dairy, Madhusudan, etc.) or the brands that are locally available at your place.
Recipe
Soak rice in water for 20-30 minutes. Fry spices, onion and vegetables in oil/ghee on medium flame.
Add rice to this masala and cook in a cooker for one whistle and is serve with raita, salad, and papad.
This was just the brief of the recipe, find the full recipe below. Now get into the action and cook this heartwarming full meal.
“Happy cooking"
Ingredients
- Vegetables
- Spices
- For garnishing
Instructions
- Wash the rice properly and soak it for 20 minutes,
- Cut cauliflower in small florets, dice potato into medium pieces and slice onions. Boil soyabean for 3-4 minutes. Grind onion and tomato separately.
- Place a cooker on medium heat and when oil is heated properly, add cumin seeds and heeng, fry for few seconds and now add remaining dry spices (cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, whole red chili, bay leave, black cardamom), fry for 1 minute.
- Add onion paste and fry a little, afterwards add ginger-garlic paste, green chili, and fry till masala starts leaving oil, Now mix turmeric powder, salt, kitchen king powder (or garam masala powder) and little water in a bowl, mix properly with the help of spoon and add the mixture to the onion masala, fry till the water is absorbed completely. Add tomato puree and fry till the masala starts leaving oil.
- Now add all the vegetables (cauliflower, potato and peas) and fry for 3-4 minutes so that all the vegetables are coated with the masala properly. Afterwards add soaked rice and gently stir it so that it is mixed with masala and vegetables properly.
- Cover the cooker with the lid and cook it till one whistle. Wait for the pressure to get released.
- Serve Tehri in a serving dish, smear generous amount of pure ghee and garnish it with freshly chopped coriander leaves. You can add onion- tomato salad, raita and papad (poppadum) as sides.
