Chinese 5-spice seasoning
1.5 T anise seed
2.5 t fennel seed
1.5 t ground cinnamon
0.5 t ground black pepper
0.5 t ground white pepper (optional)
0.5 t ground clove
0.5 t ground ginger (optional)
If you use them all it's 7-spice seasoning, right?! The dominant spice is obviously the anise seed.
Put them all in a coffee grinder and pulse until powdery, about 15 seconds.
This was wonderful for a nice Chinese beef braise I made today.
Recipes for that will vary, but I used one teaspoon (t) of the above for about 3 pounds of beef chuck, as well as 6 big cloves of garlic pressed, a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root finely diced, a bunch of green onions chopped and .25 t hot red pepper flakes (or use a fresh red chilli pepper).
You coat the raw cubed beef with 2 T salted flour in a freezer bag and brown that in a pan in batches in oil. Take your time and do that right and you won't be sorry. The browned meat then goes into the crock pot, after which I very briefly sauteed the mixture above in the fat left in the pan, a couple of minutes.
Then I added 2 cups of beef stock I had ready, made from a bouillon cube, 3 T of Tamari sauce, 3 T of red wine and 2 t sugar to the pan, heating and scraping and mixing until nice and hot.
The contents of the pan go over the meat in the crock pot, then cover it and cook on low at least six hours.
Serve the meat and gravy over Jasmine rice with a vegetable on the side. I chose green peas.
It was so good I wanted seconds and thirds and fourths.
