Five-spice powder
Template:Otheruses4 Template:Chinese Five-spice powder is a convenient seasoning in Chinese cuisine. It incorporates the five basic flavors of Chinese cooking — sweet, sour, bitter, savory, and salty. It consists of Chinese Tung Hing cinnamon (actually a type of cassia), powdered cassia buds, powdered star anise and anise seed, ginger root, and ground cloves. Another recipe for the powder consists of huajiao (Szechuan pepper), bajiao (star anise), rougui (cassia), cloves, and fennel seeds. It is used in most recipes for Cantonese roasted duck, as well as beef stew. The Five-spice powder mixture has followed the Chinese diaspora and has been incorporated into national cuisines throughout Asia.
The formulae are based on the Chinese philosophy of balancing the yin and yang in food. A pinch of the powder goes a long way.
Although this spice is used in restaurant cooking, many Chinese households never use it in day-to-day cooking. In Hawaii, some restaurants have it on the table.
A versatile seasoned salt can be easily made by stir-frying common salt with Five-spice powder under low heat in a dry pan until the spice and salt are well mixed.
See also
- The Wikibooks Cookbook may have additional variations on this theme
- Red cooking
