Star anise

Badian too

​

Description:

The star anise grows as an evergreen tree and belongs to the anise family.

It becomes about 6-10 meters high. Its leaves are leathery, tough and lanceolate.

The red-brown, corky-wood collective fruits emerge from the greenish-yellow flowers. These fruits in turn usually consist of eight bellow fruit capsules arranged in a star shape around the central axis. This is the edible part, the yellow-brown, glossy seeds we know.

Harvest time:

The seeds are harvested in October, i.e. in autumn, before the first frost.

Offer form:

Dried whole fruits or ground seeds.

Ingredients:

Essential oil: of which 80-90% anethole; also monoterpenes,

fatty oil, tannins.

Taste and smell:

It resembles aniseed, but is fuller, fruity, hotter but a little bitter.

Cooking and kitchen use:

If the anise is cooked, you have to take it out in good time, otherwise it will be very dominant. You can, for example, season an entire roast with a star.

Drinks: tea blends, black tea, mulled wine, grog but also liqueurs such as pastis, anisette

Soups: fruit soups

Meat dishes: beef, pork and lamb, seasoned sweet and sour

Fish: Asian fish dishes

Poultry: sweet and sour dishes of chicken, turkey, goose and duck, poultry preparations with fruit fillings

Vegetables: red cabbage, savoy cabbage

Dessert: compotes of plums, apple, pear, pudding, creams, casseroles

It goes very well with pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and fennel

It is a typical baking spice that is used especially during the Christmas season.

For example, it is used for aniseed cookies, springerle, gingerbread or other small baked goods.

​

Use in dietetics:

Its essential oils stimulate the appetite and the tannins have a calming effect on the gastrointestinal tract. This helps with mild cramps, bloating and flatulence.