Tempering (spices) facts for kids
Tempering is a special cooking trick used in countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It's all about making spices taste even better!
Imagine you have whole spices, like cumin or mustard seeds. To temper them, you quickly cook them in a little bit of oil or ghee (a type of clarified butter). This quick cooking helps release the natural oils from the spices. These oils are where all the yummy flavors are hidden!
When you temper spices, their flavors become much stronger and more delicious. You can do this at the start of cooking, before adding other ingredients for a curry or a similar dish. Or, you can add tempered spices at the very end, just before serving a dish like dal or sambar. Sometimes, people also dry-roast spices in a pan before grinding them, which is another way to temper them.
What goes into tempering?
Lots of different ingredients can be used for tempering! Some common ones include:
- Cumin seeds
- Black mustard seeds
- Fennel seeds
- Kalonji (also called black cumin)
- Fresh green chilis
- Dried red chilis
- Fenugreek seeds
- Asafoetida (a strong-smelling spice)
- Cassia (like cinnamon)
- Cloves
- Urad dal (a type of lentil)
- Curry leaves
- Chopped onion
- Garlic
- Tejpat leaves (like bay leaves)
When you use many ingredients, you usually add them one by one. Spices that need more cooking time go in first. Those that cook quickly are added later. In some parts of India, like Odisha and Bengali cuisine, people use a special mix of five whole spices called panch phoron for tempering.
Different names for tempering
Tempering is a popular cooking method, and it has many different names depending on the language and region! For example:
- In Gujarati, it's called vaghār.
- In Urdu, it's baghār.
- In Oriya, it can be baghāra or čhuṅka.
- In Bengali, it's known as bagar or phoṛon.
- In Kannada, it's called oggaraṇe.
- In Marathi, it's phoḍṇi.
- In Hindi, it's often called čhaunk.
- In Tamil, it's tālippu.
- In Telugu, it can be tālimpu or pōpu.
No matter what it's called, tempering is a great way to add amazing flavor to many dishes!
See also
In Spanish: Chaunk para niños
