Hi.

I've just recently come across mention of asafoetida in one of the recipes on Mamta's website; I confess I'd never heard of it before.

So I went and bought a little Schwartz jar of it, only to discover when I got it home that it contained only 7% asafoetida! (The rest of the 'mix' was turmeric and flour, I think, but I was miffed by how it was labelled.

Anyway, I wasn't happy using the Schwartz stuff so I ordered some online, and it is completely different to what was in the little glass jar. It was like irregular shaped and sized little clumps of honeycomb, such as one might find inside a Crunchie bar, but like gravel.

My question is: Is it necessary to grind it down into a powder before adding it to the hot oil, or can it just be added as it is please?

I'm not sure but I think it is a sort of resin which is what you appear to have purchased, no idea if it needs grinding or not ! Sorry

Steve

Thanks for that. Not sure what ' 'empering' is though. What I got it for was for adding to hot oil & cumin seeds in stage 1 of Mamta's basic curry recipe.

That is what is called tempering.