Aniseed can be used in a variety of sweet and savory dishes, but it’s important to use it sparingly and grind it just before use. It’s often confused with star anise, licorice, and fennel, but they are different plants with similar flavors.
Cooking with aniseed or aniseed can be a fun and versatile experience because there are numerous things that can be made with the fruit of the aniseed plant. While creating dishes with these seeds is relatively simple, following a few tips for cooking with the herb can help bring out the flavor without overpowering the other flavors in your food. Among the best tips for cooking with anise seeds are grinding them just before using them, adding them to a recipe early in the process, and using just the right amount. There are also many ideas of sweet and savory dishes that can be enriched with this herb. Some people may not have thought of adding the seeds to certain foods and recipes that the strong licorice-like flavor actually complements them.
To get the most out of the herb’s fragrant aroma and strong flavor, buy whole seeds and grind them just before using them instead of buying seeds that have already been ground. If they’re being added to a stew, soup, or curry, they should be added early enough in the recipe so that the other ingredients have time to absorb the flavor. A cook can ensure that the flavor doesn’t overpower the rest of the food by using the seeds sparingly. You should only use the amount stated in the recipe, if not a little less. As a general rule, one-half teaspoon (2.5 mL) of ground aniseed should be used for a batch of two dozen biscuits, and one tablespoon (14.8 mL) should be used for a standard curry recipe.
In addition to biscuits and curries, numerous other dishes often feature anise seeds. In Europe, they are used in many confections, such as anise balls. French recipes sometimes combine aniseed with the relatively sweet taste of carrots. In Scandinavia, the seed is commonly added to bread dough for flavor, and in Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, anise seed is one of the staple herbs found in curry.
Aniseed is regularly confused with numerous other herbs, spices and vegetables. Three of the most common examples of this are star anise, licorice and fennel, all of which, in their own way, bear striking similarities to the anise seed. Star anise and fennel are also sometimes used as anise substitutes. Licorice, like aniseed, is commonly found in candy.
Despite the name, star anise is a completely different fruit, coming from the Chinese plant Illicium verum than the originally Mediterranean anisum Pimpinella, as do anise seeds. Although licorice tastes similar to anise, licorice is actually the root of the Glycyrrihiza glabra plant. Not only do fennel seeds taste similar to aniseed, but the leaves of the fennel bulb also bear a strong resemblance to those of the aniseed plant.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
