Desi Cooking 101
Six techniques carry almost every Desi dish on this site. Each one is explained below in plain English, with the recipes that use it — learn the technique once, and the recipes that follow it start to make sense.
Bhuna
Bhuna is frying — onions, ginger-garlic paste, tomatoes and ground spices cooked in oil over medium-high heat, stirring, until the oil separates at the edges and the raw smell is gone. It is the flavour base of a curry: rush it and the dish tastes raw; do it properly and the sauce turns rich and dark.
Recipes that use bhuna: British Curry-House Beef Curry Recipe (Tender Chuck), Authentic Punjabi Lamb Curry Recipe (Tender Shoulder).
Dum
Dum is slow-steaming on a sealed pot over very low heat. The lid stays on (often with dough or a tight cloth sealing the rim), and the dish finishes in its own steam — this is what cooks a biryani through without drying the rice or toughening the meat.
Recipes that use dum: Chicken Biryani Recipe — Hyderabadi Dum, Step by Step.
Tarka
Tarka (also called tadka or tempering) is blooming whole spices — cumin seeds, mustard seeds, dried red chillies, garlic — in hot oil or ghee, then pouring the sizzling oil over a finished dish. It is added at the end, so the spices stay bright and aromatic instead of cooking down into the sauce.
No recipe in this first set of twenty is built on tarka — the technique will be linked here when one publishes.
Yakhni
Yakhni is a spiced stock — meat simmered with whole spices, onion and ginger until the liquid is deeply flavoured, then strained. It is the cooking liquid for pulao-style rice dishes, and the reason a good one tastes like far more than boiled rice.
No recipe in this first set of twenty is built on yakhni — the technique will be linked here when one publishes.
Marinating
Marinating is coating meat in a spiced mix — usually yogurt, lemon, ginger-garlic paste and ground spices — and leaving it to rest before cooking. The yogurt tenderises, the spices soak in, and the meat stays juicy over high heat. Overnight is best; even 30 minutes makes a real difference.
Recipes that use marinating: Chicken Shawarma Recipe — Desi Marinade, Oven Method, Tandoori Chicken Recipe — Smoky Oven Tandoori at Home, Roast Chicken Recipe — Desi-Spiced Whole Chicken at Home, Grilled Chicken Marinade - 5 Marinades from One Base.
Birista
Birista is onion fried low and slow until deep golden-brown and crisp, then drained. It is layered into biryanis for sweetness and crunch, and crushed over finished dishes as a garnish. The trick is patience: too hot and it burns bitter, too pale and it adds nothing.
Recipes that use birista: Chicken Biryani Recipe — Hyderabadi Dum, Step by Step.
New here? Our Start Here page pairs these techniques with the pantry staples and the two easiest recipes on the site. The spices themselves live on the Desi pantry hub.