Chinese Five Spice Powder

An essential element of many Chinese dishes, this Chinese Five Spice Powder is fragrant and so much more flavorful than store-bought mixes. Freshly grinding the spices makes all the difference!

I’ve bought Chinese five spice powder many times but I guess I don’t use it often enough because it seems to lose its potency and flavor by the next time I need some.

The answer, of course, is to grind the spice mix in smaller amounts and store it, like all spices, in a sealed jar away from the light. You can use a mortar and pestle for this or a spice grinder. 

If you search for a recipe for five spice powder, there are tons of recipes online, many starting with already ground spices, just mixed together. While that would do in a pinch, it’s not going to give you the same punch and flavor of freshly ground spices. 

Chinese Five Spice Powder

Many recipes suggest that if you cannot locate Szechuan peppercorns, you can substitute black peppercorns. You can, of course, but it won’t have the same mouth tingling effect as the traditional recipe. 

Ingredients

6-7 small star anise

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 piece (about 2 in or 4cm) cinnamon bark 

1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns

1 teaspoon cloves

Method

Grind all the spices together with a mortar and pestle or a coffee bean grinder reserved only for spices.

It’s that easy. 

Store in an airtight container in a cool place. 

You might like to try my soy braised pork with eggs dish, especially if you’ve got leftover boiled eggs from Easter. Motivation to make the Chinese five spice powder! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing homemade spice mixes. Many thanks to our host, Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures. Check out the links below.

• Chinese Five Spice Powder by Food Lust People Love
• DIY Country Gravy Mix by Palatable Pastime
• Homemade Garam Masala by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Homemade Taco Seasoning by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Italian Herb Blend by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Sicilian Pesto by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy Fried Fish With Homemade Fish Masala by Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join. 

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Escargots à la Bourguignonne

The classic French dish title, Escargots à la Bourguignonne, means snails with rich, fragrant garlic parsley butter, in this case, baked in a casserole dish. Yep, no need to stuff them in shells! This way is much, much easier and just as delicious!

This recipe is adapted from one by the late great Anthony Bourdain, from his book, Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking, where he shares recipes from his French bistro in New York. 

In the introduction to the escargot recipe, he declared that in all of his (at the time) 28 years working in US restaurants, he had never seen a single restaurant serving fresh snails. To his knowledge even the best ones use canned escargots. 

Well, if they are good enough for Anthony Bourdain, they are certainly good enough for me. If you don’t have this cookbook, allow me to entice you to get a copy. The recipe for the mushroom soup alone is worth the price (so creamy and rich, with zero actual cream - and do NOT skip adding the little bit of sherry at the end - so good!) but my favorite part is all the snarky asides and personal commentary that accompany the recipes. Anthony Bourdain at his absolute finest. 

I was fortunate enough to get my copy as a gift from my daughters one Christmas so it’s a treasured book in more than one way. I highly recommend it if you are a fan of 1. Anthony Bourdain and/or 2. French cooking. I wanted to add an Amazon affiliate link but it looks like the book is out of print. The only available copies are so expensive, which is disappointing. See if you can borrow one from your library. 

Escargots à la Bourguignonne

This recipe will serve four for a generous appetizer or two little pigs for an absolutely super rich lunch. In a nod to adding something healthy if eating this as a whole meal, a fresh tomato salad with a simple vinaigrette goes nicely. Two cans of snails yields about 220g once they are drained and rinsed.

Ingredients

2  (7.5 oz or 200g) cans snails in brine, drained and rinsed

1 shallot or half a purple onion, minced

½ cup or 120ml dry white wine

1 head garlic, peeled and separated

1 ounce or 28g flat parsley leaves

1/2 cup or 113g butter

Salt and pepper

To serve:

1/2 long baguette, sliced in rounds

 

Method

In a small pot, combine the snails, shallot (or onion) and white wine and bring to a simmer. 

Cook for 15 minutes. Drain and set the snails aside. Anthony adds this comment, which made me laugh: “I know, I know—they’re ugly. But they’re good. Hang in there.”

In the food processor, combine the garlic and parsley and pulse until finely chopped. 

Add the butter and process until the mixture is a smooth, green paste. 

Season with a little salt and pepper.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. 

Choose a baking dish where the snails will cover most of the bottom. Spoon the snails into it. Dollop the garlic parsley butter over the snails. 

Bake for about 15 minutes in your preheated oven or until the butter is melted and there is the slightest color on the snails. 

Remove from the oven and serve immediately with the sliced baguette. 

Enjoy! 

It's the first Wednesday of the month so my Foodie Extravaganza Foodie friends are sharing recipes again. This month our theme or main ingredient is garlic! Many thanks to our host, Radha of Magical Recipes. 

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Garlic Ginger Chicken Nuggets
• Sneha’s Recipe: Garlic-Keto Paneer Steaks In Cafreal Masala
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Garlic and Chive Flower Buns
• Palatable Pastime: Roasted Garlic Sautéed Squash
• Food Lust People Love: Escargots à la Bourguignonne
• Magical Ingredients: Garlicky Pink Peppercorn Paneer

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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Buttermilk Sourdough Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

These buttermilk sourdough cornbread muffins are fluffy and buttery with a hint of coconut flavor from two tablespoons of coconut oil. They make a great breakfast or snack but go equally well served with chili or stew. 

I have coconut oil in the pantry because our younger daughter uses it for the great granola that she makes but I never thought about using it in a muffin. That is, until I saw a recipe for sourdough discard cornbread on The Clever Carrot. 

The addition of just the two tablespoons of coconut oil adds a really subtle coconut flavor that we found delightful. I saved one for my mom and she agreed. The original recipe wasn’t for muffins so I did quite a bit of adapting to stick to my preferred easy mix muffin method. All in all, this recipe got a “would make again” rating. 

Buttermilk Sourdough Cornbread Muffins

As mentioned above, this recipe is adapted from one on The Clever Carrot.  The original makes an 8x8 inch or 23x23cm pan of cornbread. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan 

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 cup or 125g flour

1/2 cup or 90g cornmeal

1/3 cup or 66g granulated sugar 

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup or 100g sourdough discard

1/2 cup or 120ml buttermilk

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare a 9-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with muffin liners. 

In a microwavable bowl, soften the butter and coconut oil with a few quick zaps, stirring well in between. (Or soften the butter and coconut oil over low heat in a small pot.) The mixture doesn’t need to be liquid, just softened and well combined.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Whisk the butter mixture, sourdough starter, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl and fold them together till all the flour and cornmeal are completely moistened. 

Divide the batter between your nine muffin cups.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan and set on a wire rack to cool.

Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Enjoy! 

Happy Muffin Monday! Yep, it’s the last Monday of the month and I can hardly believe it’s already March! This year is flying by. Check out the muffin recipes my fellow bloggers are sharing today:

• Bacon and Whiskey Maple Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Buttermilk Sourdough Cornbread Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Heart Healthy Coconut Carrot Muffins from Magical Ingredients
• Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Vanilla White Chocolate Chunk Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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