What makes dal different from soup or stew?
Dal is a soup until you temper it.
Tempering is a process by which the flavour and taste of the cooked dal is enhanced by pouring the hot oil/ghee along with the fried spices into it. When the heated oil comes in contact with the liquid dal a big sizzling sound is created.
It is a believed, louder the sizzling sound better the taste will be.
Tempering can either be done before cooking the dal or as the final stage of making dal.
Tempering is also know as tadka, baghar,chaunk, thaalippu, vaghaar, phodni, sambhar, telmora and so on.
How to temper dal
Heat little oil or ghee and add dried or fresh spices as in the recipe. Fry it for a while until the aroma is release from the spices without burning. Next pour the hot spice mixture over the cooked dal.
In the picture tempering is done with red dried chilly and panch phoron.( 5 different spices)
Some commonly used spices for tempering :
Mustard seeds, jeera / cumin, sonf/fennel, Kaljeera/ Black cumin and methi/fenugreek.
Sometimes all the above five spices are mixed together and used for tempering. The mixture of these 5 spices are known as Panch Phoron. It gives an unique aroma.
Haldhi/ turmeric powder is another spice used for tempering. Beside being used for colouring (yellow) it has its own medicinal properties.
Fresh garlic, ginger, onion and green chillies.
Dried ones are tez patta/bay leaves and dried red chillies.
Channa dal and urad dal are used in tempering in some South Indian savoury dishes.
Curiya patta/ curry leaves are also used during tempering. It hasa beautiful flavour. It is used almost in all the South Indian savoury dishes. The plant grows as tall as an apple tree.
All spices and herbs used for tempering have many medicinal and nutritional values, beside adding taste and colour to the dal.
Happy Cooking !
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Dal On The Table 
As usual …very well explained.
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I used to add tomatoes along with curry leaves for tempering
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Excellent explanations.How about Dal with vegetable and adding herbs.
Good luck.
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Suggestions:
The Dals of India should be continued with recipes from every region or State while you introduce newer ways of cooking lentils: your breads, flan, cupcakes, etc.
The Menu should show “Introduction” link. Please provide a link after every recipe to go to the Top to make navigation easier.
I enjoy following your researches into cooking lentils. Thanks.
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Thank you Ankush. I will work on it soon.
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