spices: asafoetida (hing)

First off, let me give a huge thumbs-up to Obama for being the first sitting President of the United States to publicly endorse marriage for same-sex couples, and that too in an election year. Now, let’s get back to Indian spices!

Asafoetida or hing, in Hindi, is a lesser known Indian spice. And, apparently, it’s also known as devil’s dung, stinking gum, devil’s sweat, food of the gods and giant fennel in other parts of the world! It does have a pungent and strong smell, but I don’t find it fetid at all. Like beauty and taste, stink is subjective too.

Hing is made from the dried sap of the asafoetida plant. You can buy it whole and crush it at home right before using — it’ll taste stronger and better than the pre-powdered compounded version (which is what I use and is pictured here). Most commercially sold powdered hing is not 100% hing, it includes edible gum and flour.

Like turmeric, asafoetida is very well-known for its medicinal properties. It’s an excellent cure for flatulence (Dabur hingoli, anyone?) and therefore, an essential ingredient in  preparations like sambar and dosas that use lentils that are relatively heavier on the stomach e.g. urad and arhar. It is also considered helpful in fighting influenza (was apparently used in 1918 to fight the Spanish Influenza epidemic), asthma and bronchitis among other ailments. One of its more interesting use is as a bait for attracting wolves and coyotes!

Hing can probably be considered one of the secret ingredients in many Indian recipes, especially in South Indian food. More often than not, hing is what you smell when you enter a restaurant like Sarvana Bhavan. It should be used judiciously e.g. 1-2 pinches are usually more than enough in a recipe meant for 4 people. Put it in the hot oil/ghee around the same time as you would put cumin seeds/mustard seeds/whole dried chillies i.e. right at the beginning of the cooking process. It’s amazing how a pinch of hing can totally transform the taste of the dish, but in a subtle and layered manner. If you’ve never used it, please do give it a try!

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You can also read this nicely written article by Serious Eats author, Max Falkowitz. More on the history of asafoetida in the West here.

spices: turmeric (haldi)

Several of my non-Indian friends really like eating Indian food. But mostly it’s the take-out aloo gobhi, chicken tikka masala or saag paneer that satisfy their weekly curry cravings. Many of them would LIKE to cook daal and chole at home, but the long list of spices and ingredients make it a little difficult for beginners. Personally, I don’t think the lists are that complicated once you get the hang of basic flavor combinations, but if you are not used to cooking with much more than salt and pepper, and feel that you are never going to end up using ALL those packets of spices, you can easily talk yourself into ordering greasy, gloopy, everything-looks-the-same take-out. So, I thought I would occasionally write a post about some of the Indian spices that I use very often.

Let’s start with turmeric or haldi, in Hindi. Turmeric is what gives Indian food that bright yellow color. It has a very pungent taste and aroma, so a little goes a long way. Sometimes I come across recipes that call for a tablespoon of turmeric in a dish meant to serve 4 people and that’s WAY MORE than you really need. Too much turmeric can easily overpower the look and taste of any dish and make it bitter, so use it sparingly.

Turmeric is mainly used in its powdered form, as shown in the photo above. You can buy it pre-ground or buy the dried rhizome (rootstalk that looks a lot like ginger) and grind it on your own, like many people in India do. One can also use fresh turmeric, again in the same way as ginger.

Spices are not restricted to just kitchens and cooking in India. They permeate the entire culture in fascinating ways and turmeric is an excellent example. It has excellent medicinal properties, rich in antioxidant curcumin and is now being researched for its potential cancer-prevention and treatment properties. Countless Indian children are made to drink turmeric flavored milk by their moms and grandmoms, often against their wishes, when they get sore throats or body aches or bruise their knees and elbows while playing etc.

It’s also considered excellent for the skin. In fact, haldi ceremony is a very important part of many Indian weddings – women in the family apply ubtan, a paste made from turmeric, oil etc., to the face, arms and feet of the bride/bridegroom while singing folk songs. It’s a cultural thing now, but I am sure it started out as an ancient bridal beauty treatment!

Haldi is also used to make rangoli (a decorative design made on the floors of courtyards and entrances in Indian homes) and as a natural color to smear people with on the festival of Holi. It’s everywhere, really!

So, that’s turmeric for you!

P.S. Oh, I just remembered…turmeric is also a natural ant-repellent. A few months back, a steady stream of red ants was coming into my apartment through a small gap in the window. I blocked their entry with a thin sprinkling of turmeric and it worked like a charm! Something to keep in mind.

lentils 101

Lentils are a type of pulse or legume. Although these terms are used interchangeably, they are not technically the same. Leguminous plants are a family of flowering plants having pods (or legumes) as fruits and root nodules enabling storage of nitrogen-rich material. These include not just lentils, but also peas, beans, peanuts and soy for example. The FAO uses the term ‘pulse’ specifically for crops harvested solely for the dry seed. And finally, since I’ll use it below, Daal is an Indian term referring to both raw and cooked lentils/legumes.

Anyhow, lentils have been used in most food cultures for a really long time. They have a high protein content and are especially important for vegetarians or vegans. When I was a child, I could only distinguish between kaali daal and peeli daal i.e. yellow or black daal based on how light or dark the end-product was! Once I started cooking, I was baffled by the different varieties of daals and it took me a while to learn their names and figure out the differences between them! For those of you still struggling with your lentils, here’s a quick refresher course . The general rule for cooking daal is that the thicker, and the bigger it is, the more time it’ll take to cook.

1. URAD DAAL: There are 3 kinds: whole, split-with skin and split-without skin. Whole urad is black in color and it’s the main ingredient in Daal Makhni. It’s very hard and requires overnight soaking like kidney beans (rajma) or chickpeas (chana), even if you are using a pressure cooker. Split urad with skin is less tough and can be cooked without long periods of soaking. It’s black and white in color, due to the dark skin and lighter interior. Split urad with no skin is white in color and has a slightly gluey consistency when cooked. It is used most commonly in making idli, dosa, vada, uttapam etc. You’ll also see it being used in tadka or tempering for many South Indian and Gujarati recipes.
   
2. MOONG DAAL: Just like urad, there are 3 kinds: whole, split-with skin and split-without skin. Whole moong is deep green in color and about the same size as whole urad. It is often used to make sprouts. Split, with skin moong is green and white and can be used to make regular daal. Split moong without skin is pale yellow in color and is quite small. It’s one of the lightest lentils and very often used to make khichdi. One can also use it for moong daal ka halwa and vadiyaan among other things.
   
3. ARHAR/TOOR DAAL: This daal is also yellow in color, but it’s darker and bigger than yellow moong daal. It is very popular in Uttar Pradesh to make regular daal and khichdi. South Indians use it to make sambaar. I have noticed that some grocery stores carry an oily version of arhar daal, which is nothing but plain arhar treated with oil to prolong its shelf life. 
4. MOTH/MATKI DAAL: This daal is usually available whole and has a thin and long shape. It has a greenish-brown color and is primarily used to make sprouts. It is also used in many savory mixtures.
5. CHANA DAAL: Chana daal is made from black gram by splitting and removing the skin. It is yellow in color and slightly bigger and more round than arhar daal. Very popular in Haryana and Punjab. Also used in tadka along with white urad in South Indian and Gujarati recipes.
6. MASOOR DAAL: This is the most commonly used lentil in the US. There are 2 kinds: whole and split-without-skin. Whole masoor is brownish in color and has a flat shape and used for most lentil soups. Split masoor without skin is orange in color and makes a wonderful light-soupy daal like yellow moong. Both kinds of masoor can be cooked very quickly. The orange masoor is also known as daal malka.
   

I am sure there are many more varieties of lentils that I have not included, but these are the most commonly used ones.

Photo Credits: I was out of split moong daals (yellow and green) at home, so their pictures have been downloaded from the internet.