Spice blooming (tadka / tempering)

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Tadka — also called tempering, chaunk, tarka, or baghaar — is the technique of briefly frying whole or ground spices in hot oil or ghee to release their fat-soluble aromatic compounds. Most spice flavour molecules dissolve in fat, not water. Adding cumin seeds directly to a simmering pot of dal gives you maybe 20% of their flavour potential. Frying those same seeds in hot ghee for 30 seconds and pouring the sizzling, fragrant oil over the finished dal gives you everything — the full aromatic spectrum, transformed by heat, carried by fat, delivered in a single dramatic sizzle at the table.

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