Anise

Anise (Pimpinella anisum) is an aromatic herb belonging to the carrot and parsley families. It is the greenish-brown seeds of anise (also know as aniseed or sweet cumin) that are used in cookery, giving a sweet yet spicy aroma and a distinctive liquorice-like flavour to a range of both sweet and savoury dishes. For example, it is often used to flavour Indian vegetable and fish recipes, and can also be used in much the same way as fennel to flavour fish, poultry, soups and root vegetable dishes. It may be added to cakes, bread, biscuits and pastries and in the Middle East it is used to flavour jam and figs preserved in syrup. It can be used to make sweets such as aniseed balls, and its oils may be distilled to produce the flavouring for liquorice sweets. Anise is also the major flavouring for many drinks such as Pernod, Ricard, ouzo, raki and French pastis.

The dried seeds are ground to make powdered ground anise; however it is best to either buy seeds and grind them when needed or buy ground anise in small quantities, as once ground, the spice quickly loses its strength. A stronger flavour can be obtained by dry-frying the seeds in a hot pan for a few minutes until the aroma is released.