The Spice Shop

Aniseeds, green, 50g
Unit price: £2.65 (approx. €2.97)
Shipping Weight: 50g

Sweet, liquorice-like, warm flavour suitable for cakes, breads, biscuits and sweet fruit dishes. I also use it a lot with fish and vegetable curries.

Recipe: Try making shortbread flavoured with aniseed: Mix 4 oz butter + 2 oz sugar. Add 6 oz plain flour and 2 tsp aniseeds. Roll the dough out to 1/2" thickness and stamp out biscuits. Chill for 20 mins then bake at 190°/gas 5 for 15-20 mins. Cool on the tray.

Galangal powder

Pumpkin soup: fry 1 onion and 2 cloves garlic, chopped, in oil. Add 500g diced pumpkin, 1 tsp galangal powder, salt and pepper and fry for a minute. Add stock to cover and cook until pumpkin is soft. Blend the soup, add 1/2 tin coconut milk and re-heat. Garnish with fresh coriander.

Green Peppercorns

For a steak sauce: after frying your steak, add a good lump of butter to the pan. When melted, add a couple of teaspoons of green peppercorns and a chopped clove of garlic. Fry gently, then add 1 tbsp of good brandy, 2 tsp wholegrain mustard and 100 ml single cream. Let the sauce bubble up, then pour it over the steak.

Mexican Quesadilla seasoning

Season your meat or re-fried beans with this spice mix. Pile on to tortilla breads, add grated cheese, top with a second bread and fry in oil. Delicious!!

Byriani Curry Blend

Mix diced beef with spices and natural yogurt and leave to marinade for at least three hours, or better, overnight, in a pot. Cook basmati rice until half-done. Cover the marinated meat with rice; poke few holes through the rice to the bottom of the pot, and pour some oil into them. Cover the pot and cook for half an hour, or until meat is done, then leave on low heat for another 15 minutes. Recipe by Mr. K.