The Tarka

I've never particularly liked it when I have to scroll through pages of storytelling and explanations to get to a recipe, so I'm going to do it a bit differently. Here's the recipe first, everything else comes after!

Tarka - High Level

Ingredients

• Your favorite oil/fat

• 3-7 whole spices

Recipe

1. Heat your choice of fat in a small saucepan (or a small tarka dish if you have it!) over medium heat.

2. When the oil is hot, add in your spices and fry for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

3. Add to any dish to take it to the next level!

Q/A with the Aunty

Q: How do you know when the oil is hot enough but not too hot?

A: Put in the smallest of your whole spices and look for it to start bubbling lightly and make a small sizzlling sound. If it doesn't bubble, your oil isn't ready. If the bubbling is too aggressive it means your oil is too hot.

Q: How do you know when the spices are done frying?

A: Very carefully smell them! Look for some darkening in the color of the spice, cumin should brown, curry leaves will become a deep green, red chile peppers will become an a maroon color, mustard seeds will start to pop, fennel seeds will swell just like cardamom. Each spice has it's own tell and this is where your practice and experience comes in the most!

Spice Mixes

Bengali Style Tarka

• 1 tsp Black Mustard Seeds

• 1 tsp Whole Cumin Seeds

• 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds

• 1/2 tsp Kalonji (Nigella Seeds)

• 1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds (Methi Seeds)

Telugu Style Tarka

• 1-2 Dried Red Chile Peppers

• 1 tsp Black Mustard Seeds

• 1 tsp Whole Cumin Seeds

• 1 tsp Urad Dal

• 2 tsp Chana Dal

• 4-5 Curry Leaves

Gujarati Tarka

• 1/2 tsp Cloves

• 1 Small Cinnamon Stick

• 1 tsp Black Mustard Seeds

• 1 tsp Whole Cumin Seeds

• 1-2 Dried Red Chile Peppers

• 4-5 Curry Leaves

• 1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds (Methi Seeds)

• 1 Small Pinch Asafoetida (Hing)

My Favorite Tarka

• 1/2 tsp Coarsely Ground Cumin Seeds

• 1 Small Cinnamon Stick

• 1 tsp Chana Dal

• 4-5 Curry Leaves

• 2 Dried Red Chile Peppers

• 2 Green Cardamom Pods (Cracked Open)

• 1 Small Pinch Asafoetida (Hing)

If you're still here let's get to it!

The Tarka - In my opinion, the crux of indian food and what sets it apart from any other cuisine in the world. At it's simplest, a tarka is whole spices tempered in fat to release their essential oils. Doing so and then adding to a dish can take elevate the simplest of daals into something that can only be described as wholesome. Tarka's are used all over India and have different names in different regions such as chhaunk, tirugamatta, vagar. Traditionally a tarka is made at the end of a dish and topped onto the dish just before serving.

To understand why a tarka is so fascinating I need to back up and praise myself for a minute. Aunties love me. I don't know what it is, but I seriously just speak their language. Growing up, I was always comfortable watching them cook, watching them run around their kitchen, cutting vegetables while 3 pots were flaming away on the stove, each with a different dish. The main point is that it ALWAYS turned out good. Now I've been cooking for about 6 years now and let me tell you, my food does NOT always turn out good, especially when I'm trying something new. Either way, I wondered what separated my Indian food from there's until I understood what a tarka is. Every aunty I've visited has told me a different story in the 5-7 spices that they choose for their tarka. Whether it was cinnamon, clove, dal, or just plain cumin seeds. A tarka was always a final stamp of approval on perfect home cooking. It was like an aunty's version of dropping the mic. She'd place that bowl of dal on the table, and I could just feel the truest fatty in me cheer. I didn't really dive into that feeling until I started making it myself though. Let me tell you straight up that I am not a tarka expert, my food is amateurish at best, disastrous at worst. That being said, making my tarka immediately took me back to that feeling. It reminded me of the hundreds of thousands of crackles I've heard in the kitchen over the years, always curious what the hell was going on. It took me back to the child-like excitement created from the aroma of freshly fried spices, watching that tarka drip into the dal and then being elegantly drowned in the pot to ensure every last bit of ghee was incorporated fully. It's magic and everything to our food.

I think there's a good discussion to be had about when a tarka should be made and added to food. The beginning? The end? Does it really matter? I'm not an expert so I can't get into the science of it, but I don't think so. What I've noticed in watching people cook is that for dals, it's generally added at the end. For curries, vegetable frys, etc. it's done at the beginning. Could this have something to do with what spices are being used? Maybe more to do with the fact that daal is an easy curry to embibe flavor into whereas a pan cooked dish with lots of different sized and textured vegetables and/or proteins should be given time to absorb the flavored oil. There's also something to be said about the bad-ass aesthetic of pouring a fresh tarka in a perfect swirl in a pot of dal. Those mom's are da real MVPs. S/O to KD, we relate.

I'm not a big writer so I'll end it with a few sentences. I'm amazed at how important food is to my life and blessed to have the luxury of having grown up with incredible home-cooked food. As many people as possible should get to experience that feeling, whether they make it for themselves or someone makes it for them. Sitting down with a warm bowl of dal chawal.