One of the ingredients that I use rather often is the Chinese 5-spice powder. I use it to marinate chicken, beef, and fish, and they are quite good as a base flavor to grill the meats and then glaze them with a hoisin-based sauce. The powder is also used in many Chinese dishes, again as a based flavor. You may not taste it, but you'll know if it is missing.
Over the years, I realized that I could just easily make my own 5-spice powder after I realized that I have all the spices needed to make this, except for the Szechuan peppercorns. I have a rather large collection of whole spices, which I prefer, and so all I needed was to get whole Szechuan peppercorns, which I found at a Chinese grocery store.
The simple recipe that I used is this one:
- 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
- 6 star anise
- 1 ½ teaspoons whole cloves
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons fennel seeds
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What I like to do is dry-roast all the spices first. I do that until I can detect the aroma from all of them. You need to do this with low to medium-low heat to make sure the spices do not burn.
Then, all I do is grind them in a coffee grinder and voila! I have a fresh, and very-good Chinese 5-spice powder.
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If you are used to pre-made ones, you should try this at least once, because you'll be amazed at the difference. But not just that, you can actually modify the proportions to suit your taste. I like a bit more star anise and fennel, so I used a bit more of those spices.
I made this this past weekend, and have used half of it already. I'll probably use all of it by the end of the week.
Zz.
