This is Frontier's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Some Frontier packs are double wall wax-lined paper.

Asafoetida gets its name from the Persian aza, for mastic or resin, and the Latin foetidus, for stinking. It is a gum from the sap of the roots and stem of the ferula species, a giant fennel that exudes a vile odor.

It is vital to keep asafoetida in airtight containers as its sulfurous odor will affect other foods and spices. This is a very powerful spice and even in its ground state lasts well over a year if stored properly, away from light and air.

This is traditional powdered asafoetida, that is, the pure ground resin mixed with rice flour and gum arabic. It is much easier to use than the pure resin alone, and may be added directly to recipes (the unmixed resin requires preparatory frying). Use in minute quantities, adding directly to cooking liquid, frying in oil, or steeping in water. Asafoetida is used mostly in Indian vegetarian cooking, in which the strong onion-garlic flavour enhances many dishes, especially those of Brahmin and Jain castes where onions and garlic are traditionally prohibited.

It is used in many lentil dishes (often to prevent flatulence), vegetarian soups and pickles. It is also suited to many fish dishes, and some pappadums (lentil-flour flatbreads) are seasoned with asafoetida.

Cooking radically improves both the taste and smell of asafoetida powder.

Asafoetida use is an art. If used with sufficient moderation, asafoetida enhances mushroom and vegetable dishes, but can also give fried or barbecued meat a unique flavour.

Lentils with Cumin and Asafoetida:

http://www.recipecottage.com/beans/lentils03.html:

1 cup red and yellow split lentils
½ teaspoon turmeric
¾ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
A generous pinch of asafetida
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
2 to 3 dried hot red chilies

Put the lentils in a heavy pot with 2 ½ cups water and the turmeric. Stir and bring to a simmer. (Do not let it boil over.) Cover, leaving the lid just very slightly ajar, turn the heat to low, and simmer for 40 minutes, or until tender. Stir a few times during the cooking. Add the salt and mix. Leave covered over very low heat.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan over fairly high heat. When hot, add the Asafoetida, then, a second later, the cumin seeds. Let the cumin seeds sizzle for a few seconds. Add the chilies. As soon as they turn dark red, this takes just a few seconds, lift up the lid of the lentil pot and pour in the contents of the frying pan, oil as well as the spices. Cover the pot to immediately trap the aromas. Serve warm.

Yield: 4 servings

Sweet Corn Savoury Steamed Cakes:

Makai ka Dhokla

http://www.gujaratplus.com/g_rec/makai_ka_dhokla.html:

1 cup maize flour (makai ka atta)
½ cup sour curds
½ cup sweet corn kernels
2 teaspoons ginger- green chilli paste
¼ teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Eno's fruit salt
2 teaspoons oil
salt to taste

For the garnish
1 tablespoon chopped coriander

For the tempering
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)
1 teaspoon sesame seeds (til)
a pinch asafoetida (hing)
1 tablespoon oil

Other ingredients
oil for greasing

1. Combine the maize flour and sour curds with ½ cup of warm water in a bowl. Mix well to make a smooth batter. Keep aside for at least 30 minutes.

2. Add the sweet corn, ginger-green chilli paste, asafoetida, sugar, lemon juice, oil and mix well.

3. Add the fruit salt, mix gently and pour the batter into a greased 150 mm. (6') diameter thali. Steam for 15 to 20 minutes.

4. Prepare the tempering by heating the oil, adding the mustard seeds, sesame seeds and asafoetida and frying until the seeds crackle. Pour the tempering over the prepared dhokla.

5. Garnish with the chopped coriander. Cut into pieces and serve hot.

Bhaji Paun:

http://members.tripod.com/holy_98/recipes.htm

Brinjal [Eggplant] 1 (One)
Potato 1 (One)
cabbage ¾ leaves
cauliflower ¼ piece
peas 100 gms
carrots 1 (one)
For the Paste:
Tomatoe 1 (one)
onion 1 (one)
lemon 1 (one)
green chilly paste 2 chillies +pc of ginger
turmeric powder
red chilly powder
asafoetida
paun bhaji masala 1 teaspoon or as required
oil 1 teaspoon

Steam Boil all the vegetables in a vessel. Once ready, mesh the vegetables to fill two bowls and leave aside.

Crush tomatoe and onion. Grind it in mixer.

Take green chillies, ginger piece, turmeric powder, asafoetida and make a paste.

Method: Take one teaspoon oil in a vessel. Put the paste in it till deep fry and gives flavour. Put the tomotoe onion mix in it. Then put two bowls meshed vegetables into the mixed ingredients and stir it.shake well and then add one lemon juice, dry masala powder of bhaji paun, corriander and leave covered for few minutes. Ready to serve.

Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'The odour of Asafoetida is stronger and more tenacious than that of the onion, the taste is bitter and acrid; the odour of the gum resin depends on the volatile oil. It is much used in India and Persia in spite of its offensive odour as a condiment and is thought to exercise a stimulant action on the brain.'

'It is a local stimulant to the mucous membrane, especially to the alimentary tract, and therefore is a remedy of great value as a carminative in flatulent colic and a useful addition to laxative medicine. There is evidence that the volatile oil is eliminated through the lungs, therefore it is excellent for asthma bronchitis, whooping-cough, etc.'

'Owing to its vile [raw] taste it is usually taken in pill form, but is often given to infants per rectum in the form of an emulsion. The powdered gum resin is not advocated as a medicine, the volatile oil being quickly dissipated.'

King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'The odor of asafoetida is imparted to the breath, secretions, flatus, and gastric eructations. Its properties are stimulant, antispasmodic, expectorant, emmenagogue, and vermifuge.'

'Improper in inflammatory conditions of the system, but of marked value in purely functional nervous disorders, with excitability, and as a gastric stimulant in gastro-intestinal atony, with flatulence. It allays gastric irritation.'

'Used in croup, pertussis, hysteria, infantile convulsions, flatulent colic, chronic catarrh, chlorosis, spasmodic nervous diseases of females, and, in combination with morphine and quinine, in sick or nervous headache. With resin of podophyllum and resin of cimicifuga, it is beneficial in chorea.'

'Likewise efficient in amenorrhoea and dysmenorrhoea, and as an injection in tympanitic abdomen, lumbricus, and ascarides. In hysteria its effects are especially good, sometimes preventing the attack if given early, or if the disorder be already developed it tends to modify its force. In the tympanitic states of the bowels during fevers, or when only constipation exists, it is a prompt remedy. As an antispasmodic it holds a secondary place, probably acting best in those disorders arising from a disordered stomach. Minute doses are asserted to increase the mammary secretion.'

'As a remedy for bronchial cough, dry, deep-seated and stubborn, a 2-grain pill every 8 hours will give quite positive results. Asafoetida is best adapted to cases exhibiting nervous depression, with more or less feebleness, and particularly if associated with gastric derangements with constipation, flatulence, and tardy or imperfect menstruation.'

'Dose, in powder or pill, from 5 to 10 or 20 grains; of the tincture, from 30 drops to 2 fluid drachms. Asafoetida is also employed alone, or in combination, in the form of a suppository, or an enema.'

American Materia Medica, 1919 (Ellingwood): 'This agent is a mildly stimulating nerve sedative. Its soothing influence upon the brain is of no mean order. This is especially observed in hysterical conditions, in hystero-epilepsy and in hypochondriasis. It arrests hysterical paroxysms and produces quiet and rest with a pleasant sense of exhilaration. It relieves the flatulence of hysteria also. In nervousness, especially that of weakened and exhausted conditions, and of children, it is soothing, and often wards off spasms.'

'In spasmodic conditions of the stomach and bowels with tympanites, in the absence of active inflammation it is a remedy long used. In accumulations of gas in the stomach or bowels it has been used to, the best advantage.'

'In spasmodic bronchial affections, in whooping cough, and in asthma it was a favorite with the older doctors. In the bronchial catarrhs of the aged and infants it has been given with advantage, especially if nervous depression was present. A three-grain pill was the celebrated 'Keeley cure' for la grippe, and those who have used the remedy in epidemic influenza are usually enthusiastic in its praise.'