21 Oct 2018
Encouraging digestion, releases spasms and cramps from gas and increases appetite. They also have a tendency to to make food taste really good. These are typically fragrant/ aromatic digestive herbs.
The taste of these herbs ranges from mildly spicy to hot. Carminative herbs tend to be warming and they include many of our culinary spices.
We typically want to use carminative herbs when somebody has a lot of bloating, if they have gas they might have pain or flatulence. Carminative herbs can be very helpful with diarrhea and feelings of heaviness. Sometimes people say they're meal sits like lead in their stomach.
So here is a recipe famous at Chinese restaurants to keep things light.
I would endorse making this in small batches so that it stays fresh when you use it. Most triturated herbs lose their flavor and smell fairly quickly, but this should last for several months up to a year. But I am sure you will use it up before that.
What you'll need..
Most of these Items are at your local grocery store or local natural food store.
4 whole star anise
4 teaspoons peppercorns
2 teaspoon clove buds
2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon cinnamon chips or broken bark sticks
In a dry (no oil, you will probably want to use an iron skillet or at least a not stick pan) over medium heat, toast the anise, peppercorns, cloves, fennel until fragrant. Keep stirring and toss the seeds occasionally to prevent burning. This takes 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool so you will feel no heat from spices.
Add the spices to a spice grinder. I grind mine for about 3-15 seconds intervals to get all the spices ground into a consistent soft powder.
Store this blend in an airtight spice jar out of the light. Make sure you label it and use it often.
Try this on meats, veggies and even salad. Add a little salt and it makes an excellent spice rub for chicken, duck, pork and seafood.
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