Chaunk
Encyclopedia
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, vaghaar (વઘાર) in Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
, Thalimpu (తాళింపు) or popu ( పోపు in Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
) ; and often translated as tempering
Tempering
Tempering is a heat treatment technique for metals, alloys and glass. In steels, tempering is done to "toughen" the metal by transforming brittle martensite or bainite into a combination of ferrite and cementite or sometimes Tempered martensite...
is a garnish and/or cooking technique used in the cuisines of India
Indian cuisine
Indian cuisine consists of thousands of regional cuisines which date back thousands of years. The dishes of India are characterised by the extensive use of various Indian spices, herbs, vegetables and fruit. Indian cuisine is also known for the widespread practice of vegetarianism in Indian society...
, Bangladesh
Cuisine of Bangladesh
Bangladeshi cuisine refers to the Bengali cuisine prevalent in Bangladesh. Bangladesh was the eastern part of Bengal before the Partition of India. The Bangladeshi cuisine incorporates many Persian-Arabic elements and the usage of beef greatly sets it apart from the cuisine in West Bengal in India....
, and Pakistan
Cuisine of Pakistan
Pakistani cuisine can be described as a refined blend of various regional cooking traditions of the South Asian subcontinent. Pakistani cuisine is known for its richness and flavour....
, in which whole spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
s (and sometimes also other ingredients such as minced ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
root or sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
) are fried briefly in oil or ghee
Ghee
Ghee is a class of clarified butter that originated in South Asia and is commonly used in South Asian cuisine....
to liberate essential oils from cells and thus enhance their flavors, before being poured, together with the oil, into a dish.
Chhaunk is added at the end of cooking, just before serving (as with a dal
Dal
Dal is a preparation of pulses which have been stripped of their outer hulls and split. It also refers to the thick stew prepared from these, an important part of Indian, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi cuisine...
, sambar or stew
Stew
A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables , meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef. Poultry, sausages, and seafood are also used...
), or else prepared at the beginning of cooking, before adding the ingredients to a curry
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
or similar dish.
Ingredients
Ingredients typically used for chaunk include cuminCumin
Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to India. Its seeds are used in the cuisines of many different cultures, in both whole and ground form.-Etymology:...
seeds, black mustard
Brassica nigra
Brassica nigra is an annual weedy plant cultivated for its seeds, which are commonly used as a spice.-Description:...
seeds
Mustard seed
Mustard seeds are the small round seeds of various mustard plants. The seeds are usually about 1 or 2 mm in diameter. Mustard seeds may be colored from yellowish white to black. They are important spices in many regional foods. The seeds can come from three different plants: black mustard , brown...
, fennel
Fennel
Fennel is a plant species in the genus Foeniculum . It is a member of the family Apiaceae . It is a hardy, perennial, umbelliferous herb, with yellow flowers and feathery leaves...
seeds, fresh green chili
Chili pepper
Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
s, dried red chilis, fenugreek
Fenugreek
Fenugreek is a plant in the family Fabaceae. Fenugreek is used both as a herb and as a spice . The leaves and sprouts are also eaten as vegetables...
seeds, asafoetida
Asafoetida
Asafoetida , alternative spelling asafetida, is the dried latex exuded from the living underground rhizome or tap root of several species of Ferula, which is a perennial herb...
, cassia, clove
Clove
Cloves are the aromatic dried flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae. Cloves are native to the Maluku islands in Indonesia and used as a spice in cuisines all over the world...
s, urad dal
Urad (bean)
Vigna mungo, known as urad, urad dal, udad dal, urd bean, urd, urid, black matpe bean, black gram, black lentil [not to be confused with the much smaller true black lentil ], maas , đậu đen or white lentil, is a bean grown in southern Asia...
, curry leaves
Curry Tree
The curry tree is a tropical to sub-tropical tree in the family Rutaceae, which is native to India...
, chopped onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
, garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
, 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 Bengali cuisine
Bengali cuisine
Bengali cuisine is a culinary style originating in Bengal, a region in the eastern South Asia which is now divided between the Indian state of West Bengal and the independent country of Bangladesh. Other regions, such as Tripura, and Barak Valley region of Assam also have large native Bengali...
, a mixture of whole spices called panch phoron
Panch phoron
Panch phoran , also found transliterated as panch puran,panchphoran,panch phutana, is a spice blend used in Bangladesh and Eastern India, especially in Mithila, Bengali, Assamese and Oriya cuisine...
is used for this purpose.
Chaunk is believed to not only add flavor but also to aid in digestion
Digestion
Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....
, unless the person consuming the dish has trouble with digesting fatty foods.
Etymology
The Hindi name, chhaunk (the initial consonant, "chh"The Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
name, bagar dewa (বাগার দেয়া), translates as "to temper" (bagar = the act of tempering; dewa = to give; hence "to give temperance to").
Name in various languages
- NepaliNepali languageNepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
- jhaneko, jhannu (झानेको) - Hindi - chhaunk, tarka, tadka (तड़का), bagar (बगार), e.g. Dal tadka
- PunjabiPunjabi languagePunjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
- tarka (ਤਡ਼ਕਾ) , (تڑکا) - GujaratiGujarati languageGujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
- vaghar (વઘાર) - BengaliBengali languageBengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
- bagar (বাগার), bagar dewa (বাগার দেয়া), phoron (ফোড়ন) - TamilTamil languageTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
- thaalithal t̪aːɭit̪t̪al̪ (தாளித்தல்) - KannadaKannada languageKannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...
- oggaraṇe (ಒಗ್ಗರಣೆ) - TeluguTelugu languageTelugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
- popu (పోపు), thiragamaatha (తిరగమోత), taalimpu (తాలింపు) - MarathiMarathi languageMarathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
- phodani (फोडणी), pholni (फोलनी) - Urdu - tarka (تڑکا), Baghar (بگهار) also called "vaghar" in Gujarati
- KonkaniKonkani languageKonkaniKonkani is a name given to a group of several cognate dialects spoken along the narrow strip of land called Konkan, on the west coast of India. This is, however, somewhat an over-generalisation. Geographically, Konkan is defined roughly as the area between the river Damanganga to the north...
- Phonna (फोण्ण)
In popular culture
Various words of Chhaunk or Tadka are commonly used in media, for example, Comedy Circus 3 Ka TadkaComedy Circus 3 Ka Tadka
Comedy Circus 3 Ka Tadka is a standup comedy show on Sony TV, which premiered on October 24, 2009. The series is preceded by Dekh India Dekh and is the 3rd season of 'Comedy Circus' lineup. Each team has two television celebrity contestants who team up with one well-known stand–up comedian...
, a standup comedy show on Sony TV and Chill Tadka on Nickelodeon-India.