Kitchen Experiments:Tehri

Yet another of Dad's Kitchen Experiments - though in all honesty it was a Kitchen Success.
Last night Dad (again!) took over the responsibility of getting us fed before bed. I must say, its amazingly peaceful (for Ma and I) to lounge about watching TV or reading and not having to bother about dinner AT ALL! :)
Dad was enamoured by the recipe for Tehri shown on Marut Sikka's cookery show 'Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Tikkas" on NDTV Goodtimes. Now, Dad is inspired to try out probably 1 in every 25-30 recipes that he comes across, and I have observed he has an eye for simple yet tasty one-dish meals.
So enthusiastic was he about making the Tehri that Ma scoured the loft to get out her old 'Langdi', a traditional brass flat vessel (like a pie tin, but much deeper) which is THE PERFECT vessel for cooking rice in. (Which we havent used for the last 25 years or so)
The recipe can be found here:, which I have reroduced below:
Ingredients:
1 cup rice
2 carrots
10 beans
2 potatoes
100 gm fresh peas
1 tbs mustard oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp garlic paste
1/2 cup kasoori methi leaves
1/2 cup thick yoghurt
2 tsp yellow chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
8-10 sliced green chillies
3 tsp sliced ginger
1 tsp green cardamom powder
1 tsp mace powder
1/2 cup cream
Salt
Water

Method:
Soak the rice in double the amount of water for twenty minutes.

Peel and cut carrots, beans and potatoes into small diagonal pieces. Boil water in a pan, add salt and blanch potatoes, carrots,peas and beans, separately for two to three minutes. Once they are boiled, rinse them in cold water.
Heat mustard oil in a vessel, add cumin seeds, garlic paste, kasoori methi leaves and saute. Add water and cook for a minute. Add the vegetables and salt. Cook for sometime. Now add yoghurt, yellow chilli powder, turmeric powder and cook for five to ten minutes. Add water and boil it for sometime.
Add green chillies, ginger, green cardamom powder, mace powder and rice. Gently stir and reduce the heat. Cover and cook for sometime. Once the rice is cooked add the cream and saute. Serve hot.


We didnt have mace powder nor the yellow chili powder, nor the mustard oil but Dad left out the mace and substituted red chilli powder (paprika) for the yellow and used peanut oil instead of mustard (we neither of us like the smell of mustard oil)
And it was a resounding success! The rice is fragrant with all the spices, yet there is no harsh heat on the palate. Its a delicately spiced and exqusite-looking dish to be savoured with a simple raita.
Here it is in all its glory:



All in all a pretty simple dish which is a meal in itself!