Chinese cooking spice: Star anise
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Star anise, as the name suggests, is star-shaped. It is a dried seed head of evergreen trees in the magnolia family. It has a pungent, aromatic smell like fennel. Due to its strong aromatic smell, usually 1 or ½ piece is plenty to give flavor to long-simmered meats and poultry. It is one of the ingredients of 5-spice powder. In Chinese cuisine, it is primarily used to season foods, as a marinade for stews, and in meat and poultry dishes. Star anise can be found whole, broken, ground, as seeds, or an oil. As the oil, it has been used to treat children's colic problems, rheumatism, and is said to be mildly sleep-inducing. In the ground form, it is used in smoking mixtures when its flavor is desired to accent a smoked dish. In the Western culture, star anise is used as a flavoring agent for licorice, gums, cough medicines, and liquours. Star anise can be found in the Southeastern part of the United States, but it is predominantly grown in Asia, particularly in southern China. |
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