Due to our love of Asian food, I have cooked many times with Chinese Five-spice. Last night, however, was my first conscious encounter with French four-spice, otherwise known as quatre épices.
Stephanie's version contained nutmeg, ground ginger, black peppercorns and cloves. The only changes I made were to replace one third of the black pepper with white (I love white pepper!) and also to substantially reduce the quantity.
I contemplated making this spice mix manually but then realised how much I would resent the nutmeg after having to grate it by hand which would have taken f-o-r-e-v-e-r. So into the thermomix went the raw spices, and seconds later my quatre épices was born.
I roughly divided the recipe by around seven, and used the entire amount to flavour one kilo of pork for lovely baked pork balls, to which I also added some fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs, an egg and a good pinch of salt.
I contemplated making this spice mix manually but then realised how much I would resent the nutmeg after having to grate it by hand which would have taken f-o-r-e-v-e-r. So into the thermomix went the raw spices, and seconds later my quatre épices was born.
I roughly divided the recipe by around seven, and used the entire amount to flavour one kilo of pork for lovely baked pork balls, to which I also added some fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs, an egg and a good pinch of salt.
I just ate the last couple of pork balls straight from the fridge (read: classy Sunday morning breakfast) and loved the peppery zing and nutmeg/ginger after taste.
Oh and did I mention that this was recipe number 350?
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