Asian Cuisine - Exotically Delicious 5-Spice Carrots - And, Gratuitous Gong Sound Effects!

We have had a lot of requests lately for easy, but different, vegetable area dishes. Therefore, today's online video recipe certainly easy, yet uncommon, carrot side dish using one of my personal favorite "secret" ingredients; Chinese 5-spice. This kind of spice mix was created literally thousands of years ago, and is presume to season food in perfect balance with the five elementary flavors of Chinese cuisine (and all cuisines for your matter); nice, sour, bitter, salty and savory.
The most frequent blend is equal parts ground cinnamon, star anise, fennel, cloves, and pepper. Some editions also use ground turmeric and other spices. In fact, as you'll see (and hear... warning: gratuitous sound clips ahead) in the video clip when I looked at my 5-spice bottle's ingredient list I managed to get 7 spices! That had the standard five, but I also obtained turmeric and licorice. I really could have called it 8-spice, but I only counted the two potatoes as one ingredient in the clip. Seven is my lucky number, so that's what I determined.

To me, roasted carrots are so far superior in flavor and texture to the usual boiled or steamed versions. The dry roasting intensifies the sugars and when combined with the Chinese 5, 7, or 8 spice mix, the results are quite delicious. This is the perfect holiday veggie side dish. If you watched the Cider-braised brisket video recipe, you saw these luscious carrots surrounding the bowl. Enjoy!




Ingredients:
6-8 large carrots
2 tbl vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice
salt to taste