Chinese Five Spice – a Magic Powder that Makes Sparks Fly

Pin It One of my earliest food memories is of a night I went to the theatre with my parents. As if that were not treat enough, we stopped at a Chinese restaurant on Dublin’s Dame Street on the way home. My meal came in a little fried potato basket which I was convinced the chef had spent hours weaving. J  I loved the mixture of dishes that arrived, and better still, getting to taste them all. One sublime duck dish had a distinctive warmth and depth of flavour (although at the time I would probably simply have described it as “yummy”). This particular flavour I’ve come to recognise as the work of Chinese Five Spice.

Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Pungent... Magic!

Chinese Five Spice used to puzzle me because sometimes there were more than five flavours in the mix. I discovered that the five refers to the five flavour sensations rather than the number of spices. These are sweet, sour, bitter, pungent and salty. Chinese Five Spice is readily available in your supermarket, but it is incredibly easy to make. Chinese Five Spice is wonderful with fatty meats such as pork, and duck, and adds great flavour to stir-fries, vegetables, soups and tofu dishes. It is powerful so a little goes a long way.

I'm going to be fennel seed when I grow up!

Over time, I’ve evolved the proportions to suit my taste buds, however feel free to vary the quantities of any element to suit your own taste.  As with any spices, I like to keep small quantities in stock so that the turnover in the kitchen is high and they are not kept around for ages, getting stale and losing flavour.

The Spice of Life

For about 8 teaspoons of powder (enough for several meals) you will need...

1 tablespoon Szechuan pepper corns

6 whole cloves

4 pieces star anise

1 x 6cm (2½) inch piece of cinnamon stick or cassia

1 tablespoon fennel seed

·                  Dry roast the pepper corns for about 1 minute in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add to the rest of the ingredients and grind to a fine powder using a spice grinder, food processor or pestle and mortar. Sift the powder to remove any pieces that haven’t been totally pulverised. Store the mixture in a small jar in a dry dark place and use within 1 month.

A really quick cheat to find your flavour preference is to use pre-ground spices and mix ½ teaspoon each of the five elements. You’ll quickly get to know which flavours you prefer to dominate and adjust them accordingly next time you make up the mix. It is trial and error but when you find the combination that suits you, sparks fly!

p.s. thanks to LiveLifeNYC whose question sparked this post.

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Watermelon, Feta & Herb Salad - more a reminder than a recipe!

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This is usually what I want on a hot day when I don’t know what I want. It’s super pretty and equally tasty.

Less a recipe, more of a reminder - it’s sweet, juicy, salty, fresh, and downright delicious. I’ll leave the quantities up to you. This is best prepared just before eating. It doesn’t like to hang about.

For a refreshing summery salad you will need:

• Watermelon, cut into bite-sized pieces.
• Feta cheese, cubed or crumbled
• Spring onion (scallion) finely chopped
• Mint and/or Basil, finely shredded
• a pinch of Maldon salt flakes (or similar)
• a drizzle of good olive oil

When you are ready to eat, place the watermelon in a serving bowl. Scatter with cubed or crumbled Feta cheese. Sprinkle over the finely chopped spring onion, followed by the herbs. Sprinkle with a little salt. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Eat.

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Cornish Pasties – well Cornish-ish anyway !

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If you are from Cornwall, shut your eyes and block your ears for I am about to commit sacrilege. First though, here’s a little bit about the Cornish pastry, the traditional fare of Cornish tin miners. It is simply a half-moon-shaped savoury pastry containing diced beef skirt, onion, turnip (swede), potato, maybe some parsley, and little else. In some places there was a tradition of putting the initials of the owner on the pasty so that in mines where an oven was provided, the miner could pick out his own pasty from the hoards.

The Cornish pasty has recently been given Protected Geographical Status, meaning only pasties made in Cornwall and containing only the traditional ingredients can be called Cornish pasties.

As my humble pasty is not made in Cornwall, it is only Corn-ish.  These Corn-ish pasties went down a storm at a picnic last weekend. As they cannot be truly Cornish I didn’t feel so bad about going off-piste with ingredients like sweet potato and chorizo. I’ve used a mixture of meats because that’s what was in the fridge. You could use all beef mince if you prefer.

For 10 one-person pasties you will need...

... to pre-heat the oven to 175°C at step 4

Pastry

500g plain flour

1 teaspoon fine table salt

150g butter, chilled and grated

175mls iced water 

1                    Place the flour, salt and grated butter in a large mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour. This simply means taking pinches of the mixure and rubbing it between thumb and fingers until it resembles fine breadcrumbs (or use your stand mixer). Mix in just enough of the iced water to bring the pastry together in a ball – you may not need all the water. Cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate until needed.

 Filling

250g minced beef

150g finely diced veal

75g onion, finely chopped

75g potato, finely diced

75g sweet potato, finely diced

25g chorizo, finely diced (optional)

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme

¼ teaspoon fine table salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

Egg wash

1 egg, beaten and mixed with a pinch of salt

2                    Place all the filling ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and mix together until the vegetables and herbs are well distributed throughout the meat.

3                    To assemble the pasties, roll out the pasty to about 3mm thick. Stamp out 13cm circles (5 inches). I don’t have a pastry cutter this size so I use a small bowl as a template, resting it on the pastry and cutting around it with a sharp knife.

4                    Pile approximately 2 tablespoons of the mixture on one half of each pastry round, leaving a margin of at least 1cm at the edge. Fold the other half of the pastry over the filling and press the edges together.

5                    Either crimp the edges of the pastry together using a fork, or try this crimping technique: Stand the pastry up so that the joined edges are at the top. Starting at one end, clamp the pastry join between a thumb and forefinger and twist it through 180 degrees, then using the other hand, hold this twist in place while with the other hand you move along the top of the pastry, a thumbs-width at a time, pinching and twisting. Tuck both ends under to seal the pastry.

Cheap therapy: Pinch and twist. Repeat.

6                    Place the prepared pasties on a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking parchment. Brush lightly with egg wash and transfer to the preheated oven.

7                    Bake for about 35 minutes or until golden brown. If like me you are rushing out the door to a picnic, wrap the hot pastries loosely in a clean tea towel – they’ll get soggy if you seal them in aluminium foil or cling wrap. Otherwise place them on a cooling rack and leave them to cool. They also freeze beautifully. 

Corn-ish pasties - ok who wants to fight over the last two?

If life is too short to take the time to fill and crimp 10 individual pasties, you could always supersize them and make four large ones instead, for sharing. The larger ones need about 50 minutes in the oven.

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White Bean and Lemon Soup – has the X-Factor !

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Compare and contrast: your beloved feeding you oysters... or strawberries... and now, that same scene with soup... Eeek!!! Let’s face it, soup just isn’t sexy. Most of the time, it isn’t even good-looking.

I think the writer, Judith Martin, sums up the nature of soup beautifully in this quote:

"Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honour to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?"

I think she is right. Soup is a friend with an engaging personality, able to charm just about anyone, be they king or pauper.

One of the things I love about soup is its ability to surprise. It is capable of having that X-Factor, that Susan Boyle moment. Then, a seeming bland bowlful - made from a handful of simple ingredients - will sing out at the top of its voice, hitting all the right notes, and just blow you away.

For 4 servings you will need...

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 stick of celery, peeled and finely chopped

1 bay leaf

1 fat clove of garlic, crushed

400g tinned white beans such as Cannellini (rinsed and drained)

750mls good-quality chicken stock (use vegetable stock if you prefer)

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice 

A tablespoon of finely chopped fresh parsley (optional) 

Magic beans!

1                    Place the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat and add the onion, celery and bay leaf. Lower the heat and cook gently for about 5 minutes until onion is soft and translucent but has not taken on any colour. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.

2                    Add the beans, stock, lemon zest and lemon juice to the saucepan. When it has come to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Remove the bayleaf before blending the soup to a smooth liquid – a stick blender is the perfect tool for this.  Serve with a sprinkling of parsley and some good crusty bread.

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Buttermilk Muffins (the English sort) – it’d be a crime not to make them!

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Muffins (the English sort) incite criminal behaviour, apparently. Last week in Northport, NY, a homeowner called the police to report a burglary. According to the alleged victim, the backdoor lock had been tampered with and two packets of Thomas’s English Muffins had been stolen.

Here’s what I think happened: The female ‘victim’ had come home from the gym... Ravenous after a vigorous workout, the muffins were so tempting that she sat down and scoffed the whole dozen by herself... She then concocted the story to save face because she knew the muffins she’d promised the family for supper had been the last in the local foodstore...



Hey! The thief has been here too!

Samuel Bath Thomas first started producing these popular little breads at his bakery in New York in 1880, giving rise (no pun intended) to the idea that they were an American invention. However, he used his mother’s recipe – which he had brought from England five years earlier – so he was standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak.

In 1747, Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain & Easy featured similar yeasted griddle breads. In her recipe, she warns “don't touch them with a knife, either to spread or cut them open, if you do they will be as heavy as lead”. She suggests tearing them open with your hands. If you don’t have asbestos fingers, you could open them up with a fork. This preserves the very delicate structure of the bread creating a fantastic butter-trap for those who are fearless in the face of the odd calorie or 5,000. It also creates a rough surface for incredible toast and a base for Eggs Benedict to die for.

If the ‘thief’ happens to be reading, below is my recipe for Buttermilk Muffins. They are so easy and use store cupboard ingredients. Perhaps it will save such desperate measures in future...

For a dozen or so irresistible muffins (of the English sort) you will need...

500g strong white flour

1 x 7g sachet of fast-acting dried yeast

1 teaspoon fine table salt

250mls buttermilk, tepid (you may need slightly buttermilk more if the flour is very absorbent)

1 teaspoon runny honey

A little corn meal or plain flour for dusting

A little sunflower oil to grease the frying pan 

In a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer), mix together the flour, yeast and salt. In a separate container, mix the tepid buttermilk and honey before adding to the flour mixture. Mix until the dough comes together in a smooth ball that leaves the bowl clean. If any dry flour remains, add a little more buttermilk. If using a stand mixer, mix for about 2 minutes with the dough hook. If making this by hand, turn the ball of dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 2 minutes. (To knead, fold the dough in half, then holding it in place with one hand, use the heel of the other hand to stretch the dough away from you, along the floured surface. Again fold it, rotate it about 1/8th of a turn and again press it away from you with the heel of your hand. Repeat for about 2 minutes knowing you are giving your arms a great workout which will enable you to have second helpings...) Return the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm, draught-free place to rise until doubled in size (about an hour and a half). You can leave this to rise overnight in the fridge if you prefer, where it will rise much slower. The key is that the dough doubles in size.

Roll the risen dough out to a thickness of about 1.5cm. Sprinkle a tray or baking sheet with corn meal or a little flour to prevent the muffins from sticking. Using a 6cm (3 inch) circular cutter, cut out as rounds of dough. You can knead together any scraps if necessary, re-roll and cut. However, try and cut your dough so that you get most of the muffins from the virgin dough as re-rolled scraps tend to form slightly misshapen, rustic-looking muffins.  Cover loosely with cling film. Leave to rise again in a warm, draught-free place for about 30 minutes, or until puffed up and doubled in height.

Now, heat a large frying pan (with a lid) over a medium heat. Rub it with a little sunflower oil and gently transfer a batch of muffins to the pan, leaving about 3cms between them. Cover with the lid.

After about 3 or 4 minutes gently slide a spatula under the muffins to see if they have browned. If not, continue cooking and check again after a minute or so. When the bases have browned, gently turn the muffins over and continue cooking on the other side for about 3 or 4 minutes, or until they too have browned. Transfer to a cooling rack, or, more likely, to waiting plates.

As Hannah Glasse warns, don’t cut them with a knife. It makes them ‘claggy’ as the steam condenses on the cold metal. Tear them open with your hands or ease apart with a fork.

Taste tester verdict: “Best I’ve ever tasted”. This comment was backed up by him taking second helpings, twice! 

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Falafel – little green Patties on Paddy’s Day

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Patty or Paddy? Paddy or Patty? On Irish soil, it will always be Paddy but the Americans can call him what they like. New research points to the first St Patrick’s Day celebrations being held in Florida in 1600 and the first parade apparently took place there a year later. Boston followed suit in 1737 and New York a tardy 25 years later. Ireland didn’t get in on the act until 1903 with the first parade in Waterford. Dublin joined in in 1931.

Patrick’s real name is thought to have been Maewyn Succat and he is believed to have been from either Scotland or Wales, son of a Roman-British army official. But Happy St. Maewyn Succat’s Day doesn’t have the same ring to it so I’m sticking with Paddy and you can say Patty if that floats your boat.

Food-wise, I’m breaking with tradition this year and skipping the corned beef and colcannon and making ... er... chickpea patties - well Falafel is green enough to be Irish on March 17.

(You could have Guinness Chocolate Cake for afters...)

For about 30 ... erm... patties ... you will need...

250g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (for about 10 hours) - no shortcuts here - tinned chickpeas just won't cut the mustard in this recipe.

1 teaspoon cumin seed

1 teaspoon coriander seed

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon fine table salt

2 tablespoons gram flour (chickpea flour)* 

4 spring onions, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, sliced

3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander leaf

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

*You can substitute regular wheat flour but obviously they stop being gluten-free

Sunflower oil for frying

Rinse the pre-soaked chickpeas, drain and roll in a clean tea towel or some kitchen paper to remove as much moisture as possible. Blitz in batches in a food processor until you have a uniformly crumbly mix - you are not looking for hummus. 

Toast the cumin and coriander seed along with the black peppercorns in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until they smell toasted – anything up to 5 minutes. Immediately remove and transfer out of the pan into a bowl otherwise they will carry on toasting. When cool, crush the spices (in a spice grinder, with a pestle and mortar - whatever you normally crush your spices with).

A bit finer than this please, chef!

Add these along with the remaining ingredients to the final batch of chickpeas and blitz until smooth. Mix in the rest of the blitzed chickpeas until evenly combined. You are looking for a couscous-like texture.

If you have a falafel scoop, use that to make little patties. Otherwise, dampen your hands and take walnut-sized scoops of mixture, roll them into a ball and flatten slightly.

Heat oil in a deep fat fryer to 180°C. Pop the falafel in one at a time, careful not to overcrowd the fryer or you’ll lower the temperature and end up with oily falafel. Fry until these little green pucks have taken on a golden hue – 3 – 5 minutes depending on size. Turn out into a dish lined with kitchen paper.

I serve them as follows:

Smear a flatbread with hummus. Add finely shredded iceberg lettuce, finely chopped tomato, cucumber, shredded spring onion, and a squirt each of garlic dressing and Sriracha sauce. Squash in 3 to 5 freshly cooked falafel. Fold in the sides, then roll tightly and enjoy as you watch the parade (or the Ireland v England match) wherever you are.

Pita does equally well.

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

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Vanilla Orange Caramel Pancake Sauce – Mardi Gras for your mouth!

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Pancakes and crêpes are nothing on their own. Left to their own devices they would never go out. Savoury or sweet, they depend on fillings and dressings to give them a social life.

Though I’m a fiend for maple syrup, sometimes something as simple as a sprinkle of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice is just the thing to make a pancake interesting. However, for a real taste of Carnival, my current favourite is this zingy vanilla orange caramel sauce.  Pour the hot syrup over pancakes or crêpes and feel your taste buds samba!

The sauce thickens as it cools and if there is any left over, it’s delicious, cold, on ice cream.

For approximately 150mls of sweet, zingy caramel sauce you will need…

150g caster sugar

10g salted butter

zest of one orange, finely grated or cut into shreds

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)

100mls fresh orange juice

You will need to exercise a little caution – melted sugar is extremely hot.

You will also need a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed, light-coloured saucepan (light-coloured so you can see the sugar change colour as it melts and judge easily when to take it off the heat.)

Put the sugar in an even layer in the pan and place the pan over a medium heat, supervising it constantly until the sugar has melted. You will need to swirl the pan occasionally so that the sugar melts evenly. I prefer to swirl rather than stir as over-stirring can cause the sugar to clump, however a little gentle poking at the melting mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula won’t hurt.

Another swirl or two will capture those sugar crystals on the side

Once the sugar has melted, keep it over the heat until it has turned a rich amber colour and starts to smell like caramel. Watch the pan like a hawk as the melted sugar can burn quickly and become bitter (if that happens, start again).

The caramel is ready when it smells like caramel and is a rich amber colour

Now add the butter, stirring until it has melted into the caramel, then add the orange zest, and vanilla and stir to incorporate.

Add the orange juice in a steady stream, stirring until you have a smooth syrup. It will bubble furiously and the cold juice may cause the caramel to solidify in places.  If this happens,  just keep stirring over the heat and any blobs of caramel will eventually melt back in to the sauce.

Bubbling furiously

Once you have a smooth sauce, remove from the heat.

This sauce can be made ahead and served hot or cold. If using hot, remember that it is super hot and warn people accordingly. As it cools it thickens up and is delicious with ice cream.

To serve hot, reheat in a saucepan over a medium heat and then pour over hot pancakes. You could also prepare (or buy) your pancakes ahead and reheat them in the sauce as in the picture below.  Click here to for an easy cider and cinnamon pancake recipe

Pancakes ready to party!

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