35 minutes ago, shain said:Can you expand about cooking with peppercorns?
I find that they can lend many different flavors depending on preparation from citrus to metallic to numbing.
From my experience, a brief fry or toasting will get the citrusy floral oils going, and can then be added near the end of preparation (ground if dry or just the flavored oil).
Cooking it in liquid extract metallic notes, and perhaps also more numbing components.
I usually toast them in the wok to release the oils before introducing to the dish I'm making, yes*. Sometimes I add them near the end as you describe. Sometimes much earlier. It depends what I'm cooking.
I seldom use the oil. Sometimes in dips; sometimes in hotpots.
I don't detect any metallic notes, though. That suggests to me that they aren't very fresh, but I'm not sure. They should always be numbing in addition to any other qualities. Lack of numbing = stale.
* Again, this applies to many dried spices.
