Blooming spices in fat (tadka)

Why

Many of the aroma compounds in spices, the so-called essential oils, dissolve far better in fat than in water; when spices are fried briefly in hot oil or ghee, their aroma is released into the fat, which then carries it through the whole dish. Whole seeds such as cumin, mustard or coriander can take several tens of seconds in hot fat, while ground spices, with their much larger surface, scorch far sooner, often within half a minute; garlic and ginger go in after the seeds and are fried only until golden. A tadka (also chaunk or baghaar) is made either at the start of cooking, with onion or tomatoes following straight after the spices, or at the very end, when the hot spiced fat is poured into the finished dish, dal for example. Well-bloomed spices smell nutty and warm, underdone ones taste raw and dusty, burnt ones bitter.

How to do it

• Measure out all the spices beforehand; a tadka takes only moments and won't wait while you hunt for a jar.
• Heat the fat to about 160–170 °C; a test seed should sizzle straight away.
• Add the whole seeds first and fry them for about 30 seconds, until fragrant and a shade darker; mustard seeds until they pop.
• Add ground spices last, or together with something moist such as onion or tomatoes that cools the fat down.
• Fry garlic and ginger only until golden; browned garlic turns bitter.
• Pour the finished tadka, fat and all, into the dish at once; in the hot pan it would keep darkening.

If it goes wrong

Burnt spices can't be saved: the bitterness would spread through the whole dish. Pour away the fat and spices, wipe the pan and start again – spices cost little, the whole dish much more. If the spices taste raw, fry them a moment longer or in hotter fat next time.