Star anise is an ingredient in Vietnamese pho recipes. The liquid is essentially a beef stock.

Mind you, I've not made pho successfully, but I've read a few recipes for it and tried making it a couple times.

Try ajwain next time.

Small amount, it's strong.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajwain

Oh I know where you're coming from, but a point of stocks is that they can be the basis for many things. Think of the flavorings as a "tilt". If you use star anise right from the start it tilts toward (to my taste) a generic Asian direction. If this is where it ends up, mainly, that's awesome. Otherwise you can easily make a tea of those star anise and add that later.