Green Peppercorns | Ingredient Spotlight

While perusing my favourite Asian market yesterday I came across a package of green peppercorns in the fresh produce section. I was intrigued. Firstly because I thought they’d be really fun to photograph, and also because Steve LOVES green peppercorns, and I’ve never seen fresh ones before.

Green peppercorns come from a tropical vining plant, the black pepper vine or Piper Nigrum, and are the unripe berries of the plant. When ripened, they become your basic black pepper.

They are commonly found in Thai and other Southeast Asian cuisines and are sometimes used in the dish while still on the vines which looks really cool.

Though we don’t often think of pepper as having much nutritional value, green peppercorns have several, though given their size let’s not get too excited. They are said to aid digestion and reduce gas, while also fighting bacterial growth in the gut. Apparently the skins of green peppercorns are also helpful in breaking down fat cells, so eat up!

If you eat the peppercorns raw they have a fresh, slightly hot taste. Not surprisingly, they taste like pepper, but fresher. Ummmm, I know it’s obvious – but it is true!

Once cooked the flavour becomes milder and more rounded. I was surprised at how many I enjoyed over my steak.

After taking my pictures and deciding that I should have looked for more perfect vines (I did choose the ones that were the best looking), I set out to turn them into a green peppercorn sauce worthy of hubby’s desires.

Green Peppercorn Sauce

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 13 minutes

Servings: 4

Author: www.miasdailydish.com

A fantastic accompaniment to a perfectly done NY strip loin, you could also use this sauce with chicken. Pan frying your meat brings extra flavour to the stock.

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Ingredients

• 2-3 sprigs fresh green peppercorns remove peppercorns from sprigs
• splash Cognac awesome but optional
• 1 Tbsp butter
• I cup beef or chicken broth depending on your protein
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
• ½ cup cream

Instructions

1. Pan fry your steaks or chicken, remove any excess fat from the skillet, place pan back over medium heat and drizzle in a tablespoon or two of stock.
2. Using a flat spatula, scrap up any browned bits remaining in the pan.
3. Add the peppercorns and stir for just a minute or two to heat them up.
4. Add the splash of Cognac to the pan, giving it a swirl to coat the pan.
5. If you have a gas cooktop carefully tilt the pan as you swirl and the flame will ignite the alcohol vapour. If not, you may use a long wooden match to ignite it.
6. Once the alcohol has burned off and the flame burns out, pour in the rest of the stock, and the thyme.
7. Reduce heat just a bit and simmer until the stock reduces by at least half before adding the cream. Turn down the heat and simmer gently until slightly thickened.

Recipe Notes

Pan frying your steaks adds additional flavour to the sauce but if you'd prefer to grill your steaks then begin by heating your pan, adding butter, sautéing the peppercorns, then deglazing with the cognac.