A Pinch of Silphium
Venu Parthiban 10 April 2017
Recipes, Articles
Dioscorides wrote about a magical herb known to the ancients as Silphium, which was a hard-to-find native of Cyrene (northern Libya) and the Levant: “…the juice is collected by making an incision in the root and the stem. Its quality is shown in being reddish and translucent, myrrh-like and powerfully scented, not greenish, not rough in taste, not readily turning white. […] even if one just tastes it, at once arouses a humour throughout the body…”
Silphium was reputed to be able to cure cough, sore throat, fever, indigestion, anal prolapse, abdominal pain, body ache, skin conditions, snake bites, scorpion stings, etc. It was also used to regulate menstrual cycles, as contraceptive, etc.
Silphium was also used in ancient cuisines as an aromatic. The ancient Roman cookery book Apicius mentions Silphium as the one of the ingredients any good cook must have in their pantry. In fact almost every recipe included a pinch of silphium in the mix.
Such was the Silphium fad, some ancient Greeks got sick of it. Wrote the Greek poet Antiphanes, after getting an overdose of Silphium while visiting Cyrene, “I will not sail back to the place from which we were carried away, for I want to say goodbye to all horses, silphium, chariots, silphium stalks, steeplechasers, silphium leaves, fevers, and silphium juice.”
Such was the reputation of Silphium and of its panacea-like qualities, its reputation as a culinary miracle ingredient, it was harvested to extinction. By the second century CE the Silphium plant was not to be found anywhere.
Today the only glimpse of the mysterious Silphium is from a few ancient coins depicting the Silphium plant. They show a strange clumpy plant with what looks like clumps of flowers at the end of long stems.
Although Silphium may be dead, there is another herb which is potentially its evolutionary cousin. It is startlingly similar to Silphium in the way it’s extracted, and the way it’s utilised in certain cuisines and traditional medicine. It is none other than Asafoetida.
Asafoetida plant is a perennial with clumps of tightly-bound yellow flowers found in the wild in Iran and Afghanistan. Edible asafoetida is the dried gum of a plant, belonging – strangely – to the carrot family. The gum is extracted by scoring the stalk near the root and collecting the sap that exudes from the cuts. The gum is aged and dried for consumption.
Asafoetida has sulphur content and this gives it a rather nasty smell. No wonder the haters call it the “devil’s dung”! In its raw form it gives out an aroma that is a marriage between rotten eggs and cooked cabbage. However the brave cook who adds a tiny amount of the devil’s dung to a simmering dish soon finds the asafoetida giving out the subtle flavour of sautéed onions or garlic. Heat dissipates the pungent odour to turn it into a more subtle flavour.
Asafoetida came to India from West Asia via Persia and Afghanistan perhaps carried in the cook’s carts that followed the invading armies of the Muslim armies. It was left untried for the Indian palette until it was discovered for its flavour that imitates onions and garlic.
Garcia da Orta, a physician to the Portuguese governor of Goa in the 16th century, observed the widespread use of Asafoetida in Hindu cooking practices. They also used it to treat indigestion and wind. The subcontinent has many cultures and sects. Of these a few such as the Jains and the Brahmins took to using Asafoetida in their cuisine. Jains and Brahmins do not consume either onions or garlic. Brahmins, who are the priestly class, won't eat onions and garlic because they believe that the two will bring forth the baser passions in them. Jains, who are forbidden to harm any living thing, can't eat them because to harvest onions and garlic you have to kill the whole plant. Asafoetida was a boon for them for keeping with their faith while not compromising on the taste.
Today the use of Asafoetida is prevalent in the southern India rather than the north due to the high concentration of the orthodox sects which prohibit the consumption of onions and garlic. It’s widely available as solid blocks or in powdered form. The powdered form consists of about 30% asafoetida gum and rice four and other anti-caking agents.
To introduce asafoetida in to your kitchen may be daunting, but there is a simple recipe which can help you get to know this miracle spice
Carrot salad tempered with Asafoetida and mustard seeds
What you need:
Grated Carrots – about 2 cups
Green chillies – 2 (de-seed them if you don’t want the heat) chopped
Black mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
Vegetable oil – 1 tablespoon
Asafoetida – a pinch
Juice of a fresh lemon
Salt to taste
Mix the chopped chillies, salt and lemon juice to the grated carrots. Heat the oil in a small pan. As soon as the oil is smoking add the mustard seeds and wait for them to splatter. Add the pinch of asafoetida to the oil and switch off the flame. Immediately add the oil, mustard seeds, asafoetida mixture to the carrots. Mix well and enjoy.