I have a very interesting observation. The rice part of this dish, “tehdeg”, I believe originates from the words teh and deg.
Teh means the layer or bottom layer, and deg refers to a large pot in which food is cooked. So, essentially, it means the bottom layer of the pot, which is why it is slow-cooked and develops that distinctive crust.
There is also a similar rice dish in Western UP (part of India) called Tehri. It is primarily a rice-based dish, and I have a strong feeling that the word Tehri may actually be derived from tehdeg, or shares a similar linguistic origin.
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