Magnificent ferula or giant fennel plant which yields the unique flavor giver called hing or asafeotida or “devil’s dung”… used for millennia in Middle East, Pakistan, India and especially Punjabi cuisine and also in China. A digestive aid like no other, a little bit of hing will protect you from food poisoning! But get the real version, not the one adulterated by too much maida or atta or rice flour.
HING! Asafoetida in English. When did you last think of it? I mean, this gum or “tears” oozing from the rhizome or tap roots of several perennial herbs of the carrot family — Ferula Asafoetida plant especially. Asafoetida, a most expensive condiment, is also known variously by heeng, hengu, ingu, jowani badian and also food of gods – also “devil’s dung!” That last description comes from the Middle Ages when people thought wearing a nugget of stinking asafetida around their neck kept them safe from various infectious diseases of the times.
Yes, hing is a stinking condiment or let us say a most odorous herbal gum which many may get a high from. For it is so valued as the final touch of many a tempering or “phodni” to a veggie or dal recipe in the Indian cuisines. It also features in pickles, chaat masala, papad crunchies…remember that bit about many recipes when the final instruction is “add a pinch of hing!” In folk medicine hing is a digestive aid and much more. In fact, it’s the common traditional perception that if you add a pinch of hing while tempering a dish you may be sure you’ll never suffer from food poisoning! Hing is if you suffer too much gas, bloating, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, etc. Indeed, a good quality hing is much sought after.
Most Indian chefs in India will wax lyrical about the quality of “hing” – the Saraswat Brahmin housewife will say, “I use only Shankar’s hing, it’s strongest and gives a wonderful flavor!” Some will complain, “Oh this hing, too much rice flour adulterating it, I just can’t some real hing!” Hing is so strong an ingredient that it has to be softened with refined flour maida or rice flour or sometimes atta, or so I understand.
Again, in Ayurveda tradition or in some other alternate medical school of thought if you have a stomach ache, “just mix a pinch of hing in a tablespoon of water and smear it around the body’s naval button…works like magic!” We take this culinary ingredient of hing or asafetida so much for granted in Indian cuisine across the country.
AT the just over Lokotsav I came across this disarming vendor retailing some wonderful hing at the food court. Meet Sodan Singh, somewhere from Agra in Uttar Pradesh – he had this small table set-up with variations of hing – as crackling powder, as a resinous mass and as “hing goli” –which many Indians are familiar with, many an alternate medical practitioner will prescribe if you have stomach problems.
Anyway, Sodan Singh told me his hing was “kabuli hing” meaning all the way from Afghanistan; sold me a small dibbi of about 50 grams for Rs150. It’s “heera hing” he exclaimed, like diamonds, while urging me to taste a bit from a shimmering resinous mass he had on display in a bucket. Traditionally, hing has been coming from Afghanistan but the plants are native to any dry, arid, sunny climes as in Kazakhistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan …in India Hathras (a district in Uttar Pradesh) is the largest centre for wholesale trading in hing.
The perennially flowering plants of Ferula are reportedly eccentric, stubbornly hardy plants flowering solo in desert country…the roots are tapped and the sap collected as the “tears” of hing or asafetida! The plants are reportedly related to other treasured herbal condiments such as ajwain (carom), saunf (anise), shah jeera (caraway), dhania (coriander) seeds, jeera (cumin), sowa (dill)…called seeds but really the dried fruit of a joint family of plants.
Hing or asafetida, or devils dung, food of the gods, anyone? The people of Iran, Afghanistan, central Asia, northwest China well recognize this ingredient and say the purest form comes in the form of “diamond tears” of a plant. Well, one may be romantic of a plant which offers so much protection from ill-health! But please note this is one of ingredients which has to be used in minute quantities, as in a pinch – more is not better. Hing is ill-advised for pregnant women and in any case use it judiciously to bring out special highs in a dish but too much will turn whatever it is to bitterness and be injurious to liver. But don’t let me put you off a little bit of hing in your daily cooking!
