The Cookbook Junkies

Star Anise Squared

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Do you ever get on a kick of sorts? You are reminded of a flavor that you love and then you saturate your cooking with the ingredient.  Reminiscent of pumpkin flavors in the Fall – the pinterest and food blogs explode with all things pumpkin…my cooking has exploded with star anise.  I love the flavor of the star shaped pods and there is something satisfying seeing them in my completed dish.

Last Friday we had this great Steak Sambal Goreng at an Asian Fusion restaurant.   I wanted to try to recreate the dish at home – so on Tuesday I took a stab at it – but with pork…and it was pretty darn close…well except for the fact that it was pig instead of cow. 


 
 

Pork Sambal Goreng
 
1 pound of thinly sliced pork strips
4 egg whites
A dash of sesame oil
Salt and pepper
 
Combine the above ingredients in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to refrigerate for a couple hours.
 
For the sauce
 
2 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
2 tablespoons of sambal oelek
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons of honey
1/4 cup of chicken stock
1/8 cup of water
10 to 12 star anise pods
 
Combine these ingredients in a bowl and set aside while you fry the pork.
 
Combine a half cup of cornstarch, salt and pepper and dredge the pork strips that you have removed from the egg white mixture (you do not need to drain all the egg white from the pork).  Fry in hot oil for a few minutes on each side (or you may deep fry).  They cook quickly.
 
Remove the pork from oil and drain on paper sack lined tray (or paper towel lined tray).  After the pork has been fried – clean out wok or pan with a paper towel — and place the sauce ingredients in the hot pan — it will thicken up a bit – make a slurrie with a teaspoon of cornstarch and water to complete the sauce – allow it to cook a minute or two – and then add the pork into the sauce – turn off the heat – garnish with chopped scallions, cooked carrot slivers (optional) and serve over rice. 
 
For my second star anise recipe, this morning Andrew woke up and declared he wanted Buffalo Wild Wings for breakfast.  Jim mentioned that we could go out for dinner but I decided since it was a rainy, cold day to pick up some wings and try something different than the standard barbecue wing.
 
Sticky Star Anise Wings
 


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Arrange two pounds of wings on a sheet pan and season with salt and pepper.  (I save the tips of the tips of the wings in a plastic bag in the freezer for stock making time).  Sprinkle 10 to 12 star anise pods over the wings.  Bake for about 15 minutes and then remove from oven and flip the wings over.  I then re-season with salt and pepper and place back into the oven for an additional 15 minutes. 

1/4 cup of honey
1/4 cup of favorite barbecue sauce

Combine the above ingredients – and using a pastry brush – coat the wings liberally with the sauce.  Place back into the oven for 10 minutes.   Remove, flip the wings over and repeat with the sauce on the opposite side – return to oven for 10 more minutes.  After that final ten minutes, turn the broiler on and allow the wings to crisp up for three to five minutes (check them carefully). 

I hope you try one of these dishes.  My family enjoyed them!

Jenny

Edit:  I have to laugh – I just bought a pound of star anise from Nuts.com and guess what ad is on my side bar.  A small spice sized bottle was 7.99 at the grocery and a pound was 9.99 at Nuts.com.

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Comments

  4. 4

    Oh my gosh Jenny! Both of these look fantastic. I know what you mean on using the same spices, mine was cardamon for a long time and I go through red pepper flakes like crazy.

    Reply

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