Tempering (Spices)

Tempering, also called tadka or chhonk, is a cooking technique used across Indian, Bangladeshi, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Caribbean cuisines in which whole spices, and sometimes other ingredients such as dried chilies, minced ginger or sugar, are cooked briefly in hot oil or ghee to release their essential oils and intensify their flavor, before the spices and their flavored oil are poured into the dish. When several spices are used together they are added in sequence, the ones needing longer cooking going into the hot fat first and quicker ones added later. Tempering may be done at the start of cooking, before other ingredients go into a curry or similar dish, or at the end, poured over a finished dal, sambar or stew just before serving.