Today, while planning lunch, I thought of writing about this, such a typical flavour in much of Indian food. And I went to my favourite go-to, Alan Davidson’s The Oxford Companion to Food . Asafoetida is a dried gum resin which is obtained from the rhizome or taproots of certain giant fennels: Ferula assafoetida , F. foetida , and F. narthex . They grow in the broad area between the Mediterranean and Central Asia, particularly Iran and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, it is still used in the preparation of dried meat, by sprinkling with salt. The name asafoetida comes from a combining of the Persian word aza, which means a kind of resin, and the Latin word foetida, which means stinking.
As a boring Punjabi, my exposure to hing, asafoetida, was limited to its being boiled with urad — sabut, which is black — or dhuli, split white lentils. Even arhar (tuvar or toor) tempered with it was a novelty because arhar wasn’t the most popular lentil in those parts.
Fried pakodas or kachoris did call for hing, but our household did either rarely. Then I got married and hing became a part of everyday cooking. And the remarkable thing is that my daughter, when she’s missing home, craves the flavour of hing. Now we add it to most lentils, either during the boiling and cooking, or when finishing, in a tempering of ghee.
Crush and sprinkle
Experienced cooks have told me that it’s useful to crush a small lump of hing and dissolve it in a couple of spoons of water. This solution can be kept for a few days, and, especially for those who use hing often, it saves time.
We also crush a small amount to a fine powder and sprinkle a pinch into the pan or on to oil or ghee for tempering. When it is fried in hot oil, its character changes and the flavour becomes onion-like.
In some places, when people dislike the smell of asafoetida, they devise a curious method of using it. Why they should devise methods I don’t know — they could just avoid using it entirely. Perhaps so as to avail of its medicinal, digestive properties. But this is what they do: a small piece, the size of a marble, is stuck to the inner side of the lid. So when the pot is simmering, steam melts a small amount into the cooking dish. This ‘marble’ of asafoetida can be used over and over again.
Obviously, asafoetida has been around for such a long time that cooks and householders have had plenty of time and opportunity to devise ways of maximising its use.
No one seems to know for sure exactly how long it has been used, but cuneiform tablets show that it was cultivated for medicinal purposes as far back as 750 BC in Babylon.
Greek and Roman history too show its existence. Apicius describes how to make it last longer by keeping a small piece in a jar of pine nuts. The nuts become impregnated with the strong flavour; a few are taken out, crushed and used in cooking. Fresh nuts are then placed in the jar to make up the missing number.
Anita taught me how to cook French beans with yoghurt, strongly flavoured with asafoetida, and when I’m fed up with the same old alu beans this is what we make.
In my home, asafoetida was not used with meat until I started eating and cooking a few Kashmiri dishes; it is used as a substitute for onions and garlic by Kashmiris.
Lamb is cooked with asafoetida, dried ginger, fennel and lots of dried red chillies to make roghan josh. Neerja Mattoo, whom I worked with on a book, gave me her recipe for Kashmiri roghan josh, and though it is a time-consuming dish to prepare, it is the best mutton curry I have ever eaten.
ROGHAN JOSH
Rich Browned Mutton
(Serves 6-8)
roghan josh
3 tbsp yoghurt
1 kg mutton from the leg, cut into medium sized pieces (chops may substitute)
6 whole Kashmiri red chillies
2 dry dates
a pinch of sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg, grated
3-4 tbsp oil, preferably mustard
3 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
3 bay leaves
3 cloves
1 pinch asafoetida in 1 tsp water
1½ tsp salt
2 tsp ginger powder
3 tsp fennel powder
3 black cardamoms, crushed
To be finely ground:
2.5 cm stick cinnamon,
2 green cardamoms, crushed
1/4 tsp cumin seed
1 clove
10 almonds, blanched
Beat the yoghurt and rub well into the mutton pieces. Refrigerate or keep aside for an hour in a cool place. Boil the chillies in a cup of water till soft. When cool, sieve through a piece of muslin, squeezing out the pulp and juice. Pound the dates, sugar and nutmeg together to a fine powder. Heat the oil in a thick-bottomed pan. When it begins to smoke, add the ghee.
After two minutes put in the bay leaves, cloves and mutton. Immediately after, add the asafoetida and salt. Stir and turn well. Reduce heat and cover, but keep stirring and turning the mutton after every few minutes, covering with a lid in the intervals. Continue doing this till all the pieces are evenly browned and there is no water left.
Now begin adding spoonfuls of the red chilli juice and pulp, stirring the sizzling mutton all the time, till all the juice is used up and a rich, reddish brown colour suffuses all the pieces. Care must be taken to ensure that the meat does not get scorched or cling to the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle drops of water to guard against this.
Add the nutmeg-date-sugar powder and two cups hot water, ginger, fennel and the crushed black cardamoms. Cover and simmer till the meat is tender. At this stage, the water should all be absorbed and the gravy reduced to just the oil. Dust with the finely ground spices.
Heat the ghee till it begins to smoke and quickly pour it over the meat. Simmer for two minutes. Remove from the heat, gently shaking the pan. Garnish with the blanched almonds. Serve hot with a dish of equally hot steamed rice.
GREEN BEANS WITH YOGHURT AND ASAFOETIDA
Serves 4
1 tbsp mustard oil
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi dana)
1/4 tsp haldi (turmeric)
2 whole dry red chillies
1 pinch ground asafoetida
500 g tender green beans sliced fine diagonally
Salt
1/2 cup yoghurt beaten smooth
In a flat bottomed pan, heat the oil. Add fenugreek seeds, turmeric, chillies and asafoetida. Stir for a few seconds. Add beans and sauté for a few minutes. Add salt, cover and cook till tender.
Turn off heat and stir in beaten yoghurt. Serve.
From the once-forbidden joy of eating eggs to the ingratitude of dinner guests, the writer reflects about every association with food.
vasundharachauhan9@gmail.com
