April Spice Club: Star Anise
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Star anise is one of my favorite spices to cook with. It adds a delightful licorice taste to both sweet and savory dishes, plus the spice is gorgeous to look at!
Star anise comes from an evergreen tree native to South China and Vietnam. Its licorice taste resembles that of anise seeds from Egypt and West Asia, although the two plants are unrelated.
Phở (pronounced “fuh”) is the national dish of Vietnam. It is a soup made with rice noodles, vegetables, and beef or chicken. Phở was invented in Nam Định City circa 1905. While the spices and rice noodles in phở are reminiscent of Chinese cuisine, beef wasn’t in demand in Vietnam until French colonial rule began in 1858. Meat eaters will enjoy the rich taste of this beef phở, while vegetarians can work their magic with mushrooms and make an equally tasty vegetarian phở. For those of you making the vegetarian version, I suggest looking at both recipes before getting started. There are some extra spices listed in the beef recipe, which will add complexity to your broth. Both versions are topped with fresh cilantro, mung beans, and a lime wedge.
The French dessert tarte Tatin is a pastry in which apples, or other fruits, are caramelized in butter and sugar, then covered with a crust. After baking, the dessert is inverted onto a plate. Legend has it that tarte Tatin was created by sisters Caroline and Stéphanie Tatin in their hotel when Stéphanie accidentally overcooked her apple pie filling and covered it with crust to try to salvage it. The name tarte Tatin first appeared in the 1880s, although versions of the pasty can be found in much older cookbooks. This is a modern recipe for tarte Tatin with star anise and ginger. I recommend using Gordon Ramsay's shortcrust pastry recipe for the crust. Although this is a modern recipe, star anise could have been used in the first tarte Tatin, because after France colonized Vietnam, it began shipping the spice back home (especially since star anise tastes like anise, but is much cheaper).
Finally, we have a recipe for roast pork shoulder with star anise and soy sauce. A simple marinade of black pepper, Spanish paprika, fish sauce, star anise, cloves, chilis, and coriander is sure to wow your friends! It takes about 6 hours to make, but it’s worth it. You can even marinate the pork up to 2 days in advance.
RECIPES
Today’s blog post was written by Caroline Shaltz Toplanaj, librarian at RHPL.