From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Tadka)
Jump to: navigation, search
"Oggarane" redirects here. For the 2014 Kannada film, see Un Samayal Arayil.

Chaunk (Hindi: छौंक); sometimes spelled chhaunk, chounk, chonk, chhounk, or chhonk; also called তড়কা (torka), বাগার (bagar), ফোড়ন (phoron) in Bengali, Tarka (ਤੜਕਾ) in Punjabi,Thaalithal (தாளித்தல்) in Tamil, oggaraṇe (ಒಗ್ಗರಣೆ) in Kannada,फोण्ण in Konkani, vaghaar (વઘાર) in Gujarati, fodni (फोडणी) in Marathi, Thalimpu (తాళింపు) or popu ( పోపు in Telugu), Baghaar (Urdu: بگھار) ; Baghaara (ବଘାର) or Chhunka (ଛୁଙ୍କ) in Oriya and often translated as "tempering" is a cooking technique and garnish used in the cuisines of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, in which whole spices (and sometimes also other ingredients such as minced ginger root or sugar) are fried briefly in oil or ghee to liberate essential oils from cells and thus enhance their flavours, before being poured, together with the oil, into a dish.



A dal tadka, which includes chaunk

Ingredients typically used for chaunk include cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, fennel seeds, fresh green chilis, dried red chilis, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, cassia, cloves, urad dal, curry leaves, chopped onion, garlic, or tejpat leaves. When using multiple ingredients for a chaunk they are often added in succession, with those requiring longer cooking added earlier, and those requiring less cooking added later. In Oriya cuisine and Bengali cuisine, a mixture of whole spices called Panch phutana or panch phoron is used for this purpose.


The Hindi name, chhaunk (the initial consonant, "chh" [], is a heavily aspirated "ch" sound), is believed to be onomatopoetic,[by whom?] imitating the muffled sound of the just-fried spices being added to a dal or other dish.

Paneer Curry with chaunk (containing vegetable oil, cumin seeds, green chilies) on rice.


See also[edit]