Instant pot tehari that comes together in 30 minutes! Tehari is an authentic Bangladeshi dish that has its origin in Puran (old) Dhaka. It is a staple dish for celebratory and festive occasions like Eid, weddings, and dawats in Bangladesh. It is made with aromatic rice and tender beef chunks flavored with fragrant mustard oil and green chilies. Traditionally, tehari takes over an hour to cook but my instant pot version cuts down the cooking time in half, without compromising on the flavor. To make things easier, I also used a storebought tehari moshla mix (that I found in my local Bangladeshi store) but if you have the time and means, feel free to make your own moshla!
Ingredients:
- 1 lb of beef (mix of boneless + bone in, 50/50 ratio)
- 1 tbsp of yogurt
- 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1/4 cup fried onion
- Half of the tehari moshla
- 1/2 of a large white onion, roughly sliced
- 4 tbsp of mustard oil (3 tbsp for cooking the beef and one tbsp for cooking the rice)
- 7-8 green chilies, you can use less according to your spice preference
- 1 tbsp milk powder
- 3 cups of water divided (1 cup for cooking the beef and 2 cups for cooking the rice)
- 2 cups of Bangladeshi polao rice (washed thoroughly)
Instructions:
- Saute the onion slices in mustard oil for 4 to 5 minutes, until translucent
- Mix the beef with yogurt, ginger garlic paste, fried onion, and tehari moshla
- Add the beef mixture to the onions and mix well. Add water and pressure cook for 18 minutes
- Add the washed polao rice, 2 cups of water (see notes below), green chilies, milk powder, and mustard oil. Pressure cook for 6 more minutes
- After pressure cooking, do NOT open the lid and let the rice steam for 5 to 6 minutes (this will ensure that the rice is fluffy)
- Garnish with some fried onions and enjoy!
Notes:
- I found tehari moshla at my local Bangladeshi store. If you do not have access to a Bangladeshi store, you can substitute it with Yakhni polao mix which you will readily find at a South Asian store. If you aren’t able to find Yakhni polao mix either, you can make your own spice mix by blending the following together: cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, cloves, mace, nutmeg, black pepper, and red chili powder
- To cook polao rice, you normally need to use a 2:1 ratio of water to rice. However, for this recipe, I am only doing 2 cups of water for 2 cups of polao rice because after I cooked the beef, the water level had nearly doubled (since the onions released moisture). So I added only 2 extra cups of water (instead of the usual 4 cups).