Mind your temper(ing): demystifying tadka, a very common cooking procedure

This is a departure from my usual columns because it’s not about history or exotic or little-known foods, but according to me at least, a very common cooking procedure. Now over the years, I have realised that people who cook and follow recipes and share recipes, bandy about terms much like finance bros do – the only difference is that thanks to Nigella and Padma Lakshmi and Carmy ‘The Bear’, more people are now interested in learning how to cook than being in finance. But they still find terms like sautéing, braising, Bain Marie, brûlée and bhuno as foreign as they would financial terms like EBITDA and CBDC.

This was brought home to me the other day when a friend who loves well-made food and trying new cuisines asked me how I made a dal I had served for dinner. I told her she simply needed to “temper” the ghee with certain spices, only to be faced with a confused expression. It’s true that I had served a chocolate tart as well where I had said I had also “tempered” the chocolate.

So, today’s column is a ready reckoner on a very basic but essential cooking procedure which is very different when used in Indian cooking as opposed to European or American cooking. Tempering in Indian cooking is what we call a “tadka” or “chhauk” or giving “phoron” in Bengal (which is also slang for instigating a fight). There are two types of tempering used in Indian cooking. Both of them can literally bring tears to the eyes of the uninitiated and create a coughing fit while using dried red chilis.

Across India, while cooking dal especially, and sometimes even in curries and stews, tadka is the last step in the process to enhance the taste of the dish. In the case of dal, tadka is the process of heating a small amount of ghee/clarified butter, waiting for it to become smoking hot and then adding a selection of either mustard seeds, curry leaves, whole cumin, dried red chilis, green chilis, asafoetida or hing, and even sliced onion and garlic till they splutter and fill the kitchen with their aroma. Ginger, for some reason, is never used in a tadka, I am assuming because the excess heat would just destroy the flavour of the ginger. This tempered oil is then poured over the dal or the stew and stirred through slightly. This process releases not just the flavours of the spices but also their aroma.

Tadka is the process of heating a small amount of ghee/clarified butter, waiting for it to become smoking hot and then adding a selection of either mustard seeds, curry leaves, whole cumin, dried red chilis, green chilis, asafoetida or hing, and even sliced onion and garlic till they splutter. (Photo: Unsplash)

Another way of adding tadka in Indian cooking is at the start of the cooking process before adding any of the main ingredients. The most common version practised across India is that of heating any oil till smoking hot and then adding a mix of tej patta (bay leaf), whole garam masala which includes cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and sometimes cumin or coriander or fenugreek seeds till the spices infuse the hot oil with flavour before you proceed with the rest of the dish.

A lot of South Indian cuisine uses curry leaves and urad dal in the tempering, which imparts a unique flavour. In Bengal, we use a spice called Radhuni (which is also the same word for a female chef), which are wild celery seeds and are used sparingly to temper oil. There is also panch phoron – which is a combination of five spices including kalonji (nigella seeds), saunf (fennel seeds), methi (fenugreek seeds) and jeera (cumin) and radhuni. These are added in equal quantities to smoking hot mustard oil, allowed to splutter and “temper” the oil, following which the rest of the ingredients are added. The main precaution to take while tempering oil is to make sure you don’t burn the spices. Simple enough, isn’t it?

Now, tempering in non-Indian food, especially in chocolates or while making custard, is the process of slowly adding hot ingredients – like hot milk or hot butter – to cold ingredients such as whipped eggs, or vice versa, to bring both to the same temperature and then carry on cooking without curdling or splitting the mixture. It is far more complicated and not for the ingenue or the fainthearted because if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself holding a pan of chocolate which is strangely oily or scrambled eggs instead of custard.

Tempering in Indian cooking is far more forgiving.

But because I have full faith in my readers, here’s a custard recipe which I’m sure you’ll be able to make, which requires you to temper the hot milk with cold eggs.

Custard

Ingredients

4 cups full-cream milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter
4 eggs
½ cup white powdered sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Chopped fruits – mangoes, peaches or whole berries

Directions

*Place a pan over medium heat and add the milk, vanilla extract and butter.

*Stir the mixture until it is simmering but don’t allow it to come to a boil. Remove the pan.

*In a separate bowl, whisk or beat together the eggs, sugar and cornstarch till well mixed.

*Temper the milk by pouring 3-4 tablespoons of the egg mixture into the pan with the milk very slowly while whisking constantly.

*Then place the pan back over a low flame and keep stirring while slowly pouring in the egg mixture. Keep stirring until the custard thickens enough to coat the bottom of a spoon. This usually takes 5 to 10 minutes.

*You can serve this warm with cold fruits. Or transfer custard to a bowl, cover and chill in the fridge – and top with fruits before serving.

ALSO IN THIS SERIES:

Pachadi: Relish this South Indian pickle that has been around for over 1,500 years

From taboo to tradition, how paneer found a place in Indian cuisine

Garam masala: Bringing a little heat into the kitchen and your dishes

Is vegetable biryani just dolled up pulao? Which came first?

Cutting chai to Earl Grey tea: Journey of the Chinese hot beverage to India via Britain

‘Ande ka funda’: A deep dive into the history and popularity of eggs in India

Next week, I’ll be discussing curd or dahi, and when we started using it in cooking and some unique customs and taboos around it.

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