Bangladeshi Mutton Tehari

It had been over 2 years that I have given up eating rice in my daily diet. I eat rice only on Sundays with smirky chicken or mutton curry and that is that. But my love for Biryani and Pulao could not end in that way...so most of the Sundays I prepare Biryani or Pulao, so that I don’t miss a thing.

One glance through the recipe of Tehari and it appears more of a Bangladeshi version of Mutton Yakhni Pulao...but you need to cook Tehari to break out of that misconception!! The flavour of Tehari comes from using those whole green chillies...which gets cooked on dum and imparts a very distinct flavour.

It is a lengthy process...I agree, but all your effort will pay off when you will have that first whiff of smell upon opening the lid of the pot for the first time.  Totally loving it!!

Bangladeshi Mutton Tehari

Serves 6

Ingredients:

For the mutton:

1 kg boneless mutton – cut into small bite size pieces

2 large onions – sliced

8 fat cloves of garlic – paste

2 and ½ inch ginger – paste

15-20 green chillies

1 cup of thick yogurt – whisked

Ground mace and nutmeg – 1tbsp (do not dry roast)

3 medium cinnamon sticks

4 green cardamoms

4 cloves

2 large bay leaves

10-12 black peppercorns

1 tbsp cumin powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tbsp garam masala powder

Juice of 1 lime

½ cup of pure virgin mustard oil

For the rice:

3 cups of rice (I have used Gobindobhog rice. Traditionaly Bangladeshis use a short grained fragrant rice, which they refer as the “Polao er Chal” – The rice for Pulao. But you can use Basmati in case of unavailability.)

½ cup of pure desi ghee

2 medium cinnamon sticks

3 green cardamoms

3 cloves

2 bay leaves

6-8 black peppercorns

1 large onion – sliced

1 inch ginger – paste

4 garlic cloves – paste

1 tsp kewra / screwpine water

15-20 whole green chillies

Salt to season the rice

Method:

Prepare the mutton:

Prepare the marinade by mixing the yogurt, nutmeg and mace powder, half of the ginger-garlic paste, cumin powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, lime juice and salt with the boneless mutton pieces.

Let them marinade for an hour or two.

After the mutton is marinated, heat the mustard oil in a pressure cooker.

Temper the oil with cinnamon sticks, green cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves and black peppercorns.

Sauté for half a minute or until the air feels aromatic.

Add the sliced onions into the hot oil and sprinkle some salt and sugar over them.

Stir and cook the onions until they turn a little bit golden.

Add the remaining ginger-garlic paste to the onions and cook them for a minute or two more or until the raw flavour of the garlic is gone.

Add the marinated mutton inside the pressure cooker and cook them until the mutton pieces change their colour.

You can stop here and cook the mutton on pressure or you can slow cook for another half an hour or so or until all moisture evaporates.

Stir every 2 or 3 minutes so that they do not stick to the bottom of the pressure cooker.

When the moisture evaporates and you can see the oil separating at the edges, add 2 cups of water or enough water to submerge all the mutton pieces and close the lid of the pressure cooker.

Cook on medium to low heat until the cooker blows aroung 12-15 whistles or the mutton is fork tender. The quality of meat differs from place to place, so cook your mutton until it becomes soft and succulent.

Switch off the flame now and let the pressure escape.

After the pressure settles down open the lid of the cooker and place it on the stove top again.

Switch the flame to medium to high and simmer the curry until it thickens and the oil starts to separate. The curry should be thick and non-watery as it can make the rice of the tehari soggy.

Place the cooked mutton in a corner now and prepare the rice.

Prepare the rice:

Wash the rice in water until clear water runs through.

Soak the rice in water for half an hour and drain the water. Keep the rice aside in a strainer so that the excess water can drip off.

Take a heavy bottomed cooking pot or the one in which you cook biryani or pulao.

Heat the ghee and the cinnamon sticks, green cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves and black peppercorns.

Sauté for half a minute and add the sliced onions.

Stir and cook the onion until they turn lightly golden and then add the ginger-garlic paste.

Cook for a minute more before adding the rice.

Add the washed, soaked and drained rice into the pot with onions and start stirring the rice. Fry the rice until you see the rice grains separated and non-sticky.

Add water, double the amount of rice.

Add salt to season the rice and give them a good stir. You need to properly season the water or otherwise the rice will taste bland.

Do not cover the pot and let the water come to a boil.

When the water starts to boil, you take the curry and the mutton pieces and layer them on top of the rice.

Drizzle the screwpine / kewra water on the mutton pieces and scatter the whole green chillies over them.

Cover the lid tightly and switch the flame to the lowest. You can seal the edges with whole wheat flour dough, or you can do what I do, I cover the mouth of the pot nicely with aluminium foil and then close it with the lid.

Place a tawa over the flame and place the pot of tehari over it.

Cook on dum for about 45 minutes and then switch off the flame.

Let the pot sit like that for another 15 minutes and take it off the stovetop.

Open the lid only when you are ready to serve.

Serve with lime wedges, sliced onions, cucumber and a chilled bowl of raita.