Chinese five spice
Variety truely is the spice of life
So often I have friends say to me, "I can't do what you do" or " I'm not a good cook". It makes me really sad to hear folk utter these sentences. I tell them that what I do is not complicated, I don't have the time (or the energy!) for complicated cooking. quite a lot of the recipes I come up with are the happy result of another dish not quite working out or deciding to experiment with different ingredients.
One of the keys for me to being able to cook well is to have a well stocked store cupboard. I think that this was instilled in me through my upbringing in the Mormon church, they have a very strong culture of being prepared and preserving food. although I'm no longer a part of the church, this ethic has stayed with me. Everyone's store cupboard will look different as we all like to eat different things. There are many times when money was tight that the store cupboard saved us from going hungry.
A sizeable space in that store goes to my herb and spice collection, they can completely transform a dull bland tasting meal into a gastronomic delight. The ability to create your own spice blends instead of having to go and buy ready made ones, means that if there is a certain herb or spice that a friend or family member you are cooking for doesn't like then you can adjust and adapt the blend for them (I have a very good friend who thinks that Dill is an anathema, I can swap this out for fennel and everyone is happy). Quite often when I'm making a blend up I will double or triple the quantities so that I have some already made up for the next time. One of my favourite blends to make up is Chinese 5 spice, it is so much more aromatic than any of the pre-made blends you can buy. To make it I use
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 3 Tbsp fennel seeds
- 7-8 star annise
- 1tsp dried chilli flakes
- 5 cloves
- 1 Tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp sea salt
You can grind this up with a mortar and pestle or in a spice grinder (until recently I used my smoothie blender), then store in a glass jar ready to use.
If you are looking to build up your dried herb and spice collection I would highly recommend finding your local Asian wholesale supermarket and buying them in bulk, it works out so much cheaper than buying the little jars from the supermarket. I keep glass jars and store my spices in them, If you are unsure what things are, you can label the jar with a sharpie. I'm not suggesting that you go out and spend a small fortune all at once buying loads of spices, get to know what you like and buy a couple every week to gradually build up your collection, there is no point having a load of ingredients that are just going to sit there going out of date....
