Asafoetida

Ingredients:

Compound Hing (asafoetida).
You can also buy hing powder already prepared to save time.

Recipe:

1) Heat a pan on medium heat. Add compound hing to the pan. Keep turning until you see white spots on the surface. Hing will also swell in size. Let it cool. Transfer it to a mortar and pound it with a pestle to make into powder.

2) Place the compound hing in a glass bowl. Heat it in the microwave oven for 30 seconds on 50% power. Repeat until the compound swells and almost doubles in size. Pound it to make smaller pieces and then into fine powder using spice blender ( I use coffee grinder).
Store in a glass jar with a tight lid.

Note:

Powder made from the compound hing is very pungent so you will need only (1/3) one third  the amount of the store bought powder.

Read this article for more information on this super spice.

Vaidyanathan Pushpagiri / 6 yrs ago / 

  22

 

                                                                                                                          http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2674/4082645318_980d458b0a_o.jpg                   (L)

Dr. K.T. Acharya in his book, “A historical dictionary of Indian food” and “Indian food – a historical companion” refers to a food item which has been imported into India from ancient times.  It was known as a food item, in the Vedic times and the epic Mahabharatha describes meat cooked at a party, with black pepper, rock salt, pomegranates, lemon and this import, Hing.

This spice, is a resinous gum, which has a strong flavour. It is exuded from the roots of three kinds of plants belonging to the family of Ferula - a close relative of the carrot and fennel plant.  It boasts two varieties - the water soluble and the oil soluble.  

Another worthy, Dr. Chip Rossetti, calls this resin as "smelliest spice of the world".  When the farmers remove the soil from around the plant and make an incision in the top thick carrot like root, for about three months, it exudes the resin which coagulates on exposure to atmospheric air and gradually turns brown.  

Asafoetida, the European (coined by the Italians) name for this resin is a combination of  - "Asa”  from Persian meaning “resin”, and "foetida” meaning “stinking” in Latin.  It is a stinking resin because its major component is 2-butyl 1-propenyl disulphide, which can  easily  be replicated in the school / college laboratories by using the Kipp's Apparatus.    It has a more colourful name, which mercifully is not in use any more.  Devil’s Dung - both for its shape and smell !!

In India, we call asafoetida, as Hing [In Farsi it is called Angozad. The “Ang” from Farsi became Hing in Hindi] or Perungaayam(Tamil) or Kaayam (in Malayalam) meaning the big lump and is not a native of India.  It is imported as Ferula Asafoetida, from Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and central Asia. 

It is used in our daily cooking, as well as in medicines.  As a medicine its most common use is in treating indigestion and flatulence.  It relieves locked gas from the intestines and allows it to gush southwards as Kizh Vayu.  One reason, the Indian housewife includes this spice to almost all her cooking, as well as add it in making her masalas. 

The family of lentils, has a tendency to produce gas, in humans who eat them, and hence our forefathers have found a way to naturaly neutralise this upavadham in our stomachs.  To a great extent, garlic is also used for the same purpose, other than adding their fragrance to cooking. But most people do not know, that one should never add Garlic and Hing together in cooking.  Because one neutralises the effect of the other, and the very purpose of adding these spices to our cooking is lost irretrievably or forever.   

Ayurveda Materia Medica says it is good for goiter (iodine metabolism), bronchitis (anti-infective), baldness (hair follicle stimulant)  and even to bring on the recalcitrant monthly menstruation in females, sort of a female hormone moderator?

Very recently, a farmer in Kodumudi  Tamilnadu Mr. Chellamuthu, had used this Perungaayam  in it raw form as an insecticide by putting a bag of  asafoetida in his irrigation channel in the field, killing caterpillars, thus helping  many vegetables to grow better and infection free.  Plants flower better and turmeric flourish because the planted area is free of insects.  

According to the biochemists  “this resin, has a component, that inhibit the growth of insects in the field.  This component Ferulic Acid acts as an antifungal, but is also known to disturb plant nutrient balance, and inhibit the effect of plant hormones. There must then be a balance of these effects that benefit the plant". 

In our daily cooking we do not use this resin in its virgin state.  We adulterate it with atta and an edible gum used as a bonding agent, like gum Arabic in the ratio of 60:30:10.

A hundred grms. of the famous LG.Compounded Asafoetida contains 10 grms of this resin, 30 grms of  gum Arabic and 60 grms. of wheat powder. Hence it is a compounded item? 

We use minute lumps of Hing embedded in a small piece of ripe banana and swallow, as an immediate antidote for neutralising the poison of spiders and other home insects whose bite / sting give pain and an eruption.  

[Contains Hing (Asafoetida), Kali Mirch (Black Pepper) - gastro-intestinal stimulant, Zeera (Cumin) - antispasmodic Saunth (Ginger extract) - digestive and tonic, Nimbu Saar (Lemon extract) - digestive stimulant]  Rs. 15/- per bottle of 100 tabs.

"The natural way to relief from gas. Containing herbs and spices like hing, trusted and used for generations to stimulate digestion."

Ayurveda uses it as a Gas expeller, especially the OTC Medicine Dabur Hingoli, that saves  one from many an embarrassing situations.  Taken regularly, twice a day, it expels the accumulated obnoxious gas, while one is cleaning the teeth in the morning.  

A lot of churnas, and powders are available, with Hing as the major ingredient for almost all ailments concerning the stomach.Notes:

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