Okay, so, I’ve been trying to figure out this whole gluten-free thing, and let me tell you, it’s a bit of a jungle out there. Spices, right? Who would have thought they’d be a problem? But yeah, I ran into this thing called asafoetida, or “hing” as some folks call it. Now, I heard it’s big in Indian cooking, something I’ve been meaning to experiment with more.
So, the other day, I’m at the grocery store, looking at all these exotic spices, and I spot this asafoetida. I pick it up, read the label, and guess what? This particular brand had wheat in it! Seriously, wheat in a spice. It’s supposed to give it some kind of texture or prevent caking, I don’t know. But that’s a no-go for me, and for anyone else avoiding gluten.
I did some digging online, you know, the usual late-night research rabbit hole. Turns out, pure asafoetida is gluten-free. It’s this resin from a plant, kinda weird, but hey, nature is full of surprises. It’s when they package it up with other stuff that the gluten sneaks in. Some folks said to try and find the pure stuff, but honestly, that seemed like a mission, and I’m not about that life. I’m all about easy solutions.
The Experiment
Next day, I hit up a few specialty stores. I went to an Indian market first. And finally, I found it. Pure asafoetida, no gluten, no additives. Score! It did smell really strong. It smelled like onions and garlic.
- First, I went and bought all the ingredients.
- Then, I preheated some oil in a pan. I wanted to try making these crispy asafoetida chips I’d read about.
- After that, I carefully added a tiny bit of asafoetida to the oil. It fizzed up, which was kinda cool.
- I made some potato slices super thin, and toss them into the hot oil.
- Finally, I fried them until they were golden brown and crispy.
They tasted pretty good! A little pungent, but in a good way. Like, a really savory, umami flavor. Definitely something I’ll use again, especially in curries and stuff. So, yeah, that’s my asafoetida adventure. Learned a lot, ate some tasty chips, and didn’t get glutened. Win-win-win!