Using Black pepper

[Tri2Cook]

Oh, that sounds excellent and quite up my alley. Was it minced pork or strips, maybe?

I'll look for the book today, it's been a really long time since I made it. I think garlic figured pretty strongly in the dish as well but it will be easier just to dig out the book than to try to remember it all. I remember it being really simple in terms of number of ingredients, powerful in flavor and, if I remember correctly, it was used to illustrate a point about spicy Thai dishes before chile peppers were introduced... but I could be making that part up.

[Kim Shook]

I infuse honey with fresh cracked black pepper and then use the honey on cheese for a cheese board or cheese toast appetizers. This honey is also good drizzled on bleu cheese stuffed puff pastry pockets.

[Nayan Gowda]

You could also look to where pepper originated; India.

There are plenty of recipes from Southern India that use pepper as the major flavour (and heat) component; such as Rasam, Pepper rice, Black pepper chicken etc.

[DTBarton]

Simple, but rub a good steak with butter and/or olive oil and give it a healthy coating of a bit of salt and a heavy shot of fresh ground pepper. Pan sear in a hot pan.

[andiesenji]

Black pepper potato chips or crisps or fries.

Works great on fried sweet potatoes also.

My neighbor makes fried yuca "chips" with black pepper and ground dried lemon with sea salt.

[Blether]

Yes ! Mashed potatoes; clapshot; mashed rutabaga with a little butter.

[Dianabanana]

Mark Bittman has a very good and very simple Vietnamese stir-fry recipe in his Best Recipes in the World based primarily on fish sauce and a ton of freshly ground black pepper. I haven't made it in many months so I'm afraid I'd muck it up trying to tell it to you from memory, but for a while there I was making it all the time as an emergency dinner because it's so fast to put together. And delicious. It's at the end of the vegetable section.

[AAQuesada]

Biscuits and gravy I love my sawmill gravy with lots of fresh ground black peeper. mmmmmm and some soft scrambled eggs

[cbread]

Neither corn chowder nor spaghetti carbonara work right without a strong dose of black pepper.

[merstar]

Steak au Poivre.

[janeer]

Steak au Poivre.

Ditto. Also, I make a sweetish, black pepper biscotti that are great with cocktails. Maida Heatter has recipe for black pepper pound cake, as I recall.

[Darienne]

Done in by all the talk of black pepper. Had same for supper on my popcorn with olive accompanied by my own version of Orange Julep.

[djyee100]

The archvillain Cruella de Vil from The 101 Dalmatians (Dodie Smith's original story) loved black pepper. This was Cruella's dinner party menu:

The soup was dark purple. And what did it taste of? Pepper!

The fish was bright green. And what did it taste of? Pepper!

The meat was pale blue. And what did that taste of? Pepper!

Everything tasted of pepper, even the ice cream--which was black.

I was fascinated by this menu when I was a kid.

But maybe you wouldn't want to serve anything like that?

Since you have some great black pepper, I suggest making a flavored oil as your best chance to preserve its aromatic qualities. Crack some peppercorns, steep them in a jar with some good oil, and taste regularly until the flavor is as strong as you like it. Then strain the oil, pack it in a well-sealed jar, and use it as a drizzling oil or garnish for various dishes.

You could also look into some kind of Korean grilled beef with plenty of black peppercorns in it.

On the sweet side, you could put a healthy dose of black pepper into gingerbread (I recall David Tanis's new cookbook, Heart of the Artichoke, has a gingerbread recipe like that). Or you could make a spicy fruit compote with black pepper and other spices, like David Lebovitz's recipe for poached pears. Here:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/11/how-to-make-poached-pears/

Also, these Lemon Black Pepper Cornmeal Cookies (from Lori Longbotham) were a hit with people when I baked them:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Black-Pepper-Cornmeal-Cookies-105885

Years ago I made Alice Waters' recipe for lemon-pepper chicken wings from her Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook. This is the basic recipe: Make a marinade from 2 sliced lemons, 4 cloves crushed garlic, 2 tsp crushed black peppercorns, 1/3 cup olive oil. Marinate 12 chicken wings in this mixture at cool room temperature for 4-5 hours. Lightly salt the wings before you cook them. Then grill or roast the chicken wings. I roasted the chicken wings in a 400 degree oven for 40 mins, turning the wings halfway through cooking time.

The results were good, but not great. The recipe certainly shows off black pepper. If I were making this recipe today, I would add in something else to make the flavor profile more complex: some soy sauce, maybe a little dry ginger, and definitely something sweet, like brown sugar, to balance off the spiciness of the black pepper. Have fun if you decide to play with this one.

[merstar]

Another idea: Parmesan Black Pepper Crisps.(Frico)

Edited February 28, 2011 by merstar (log)

[Snadra]

Second on the pfeffernusse - they improve with age too.

I've been making Chicken in Caramel Sauce a few times a year since it appeared in the Washington Post (couldn't find a link to the original article). I gather it's not quite the traditional way to make this dish (apparently it's a clay pot dish?), but it's delicious and the black pepper flavour is a definite highlight. Plus it's one of the dishes that's slowing converting me from white to dark meat.

[Chris Amirault]

I've made the shrimp, black pepper, and cilantro dish that Peter references here from the great Riviere Cambodian Cuisine book and it's easy-peasy and very, very good. I've also subbed other herbs in for the cilantro; thai basil works well in particular. Up your alley, I'd think, Erin.

[nakji]

I'd love it, but the shrimp are a no-go in my house, I'm afraid. Steak's out of the question - no access to decent meat. I like the idea of using them in sweets, though - the gingerbread, the strawberries, or the pfeffernusse sound like great ideas.

[Chris Amirault]

Sorry -- I missed that in the OP. Still, I think that it'd work with, say, chicken thigh meat.

[Paul Bacino]

I was thinking of a good ole fried egg!!

[judiu]

Check out the stewed beef recipe in post 14 of the World's Simplest Recipes thread. Calls for "several teaspoons of pepper". Woo!

[helenjp]

Jhatpat Fruit Chaat...winter fruit salad with black pepper, from Zaiqa, a Toronto-based foodblog devoted to Hyderabadi food. This extremely well-organized blog has been fascinating me for a while. I haven't made this dish, but it stuck in my memory as a promising proposal.

[tpogue@comcast.net]

The pepper is the star of this dish. No fancy just flavor. I put this together after having a meal out that was so timid in flavoring it annoyed me.

Terry's Smashed Pepper Potatoes - Serves 3

Recipe By: Terry Pogue

Ingredients

5 medium Red Bliss Potatoes -- skins on

3/4 container Sour Cream

3 tablespoons Ground black pepper -- medium grind - freshly ground

Instructions

Cook unpeeled whole red skin potatoes until tender. Just to give you an idea of the proportions I used 5 medium size potatoes tonight. When cooked (and dry) place them in a mixer, Using the paddle attachment smash up a bit, add 1/2 to 3/4 a container of sour cream (I use full fat), and this is the important part, a good hefty 3 tablespoons of freshly ground pepper. The pepper is more an ingredient than a seasoning. Lots of good salt. Beat with the addition of each ingredient.

Keep tasting as you add all the elements until they are just right for you. Delicious and spicy with the pepper.

[DanM]

You can make a Yerushalami Kugel, which is cooked vermicelli baked with eggs, sugar,and lots of black pepper.

Dan

Edited March 4, 2011 by DanM (log)

[Tri2Cook]

One of my Thai books has a recipe in it for a black pepper pork dish. I don't remember which book and don't remember the name of the dish but I've done it. It's tasty if you like heavy on the pepper (which I do). I'll have to browse through my books and figure out where I saw it. It's a book I've had for at least 15 years so it's not new. For some reason I'm thinking it was really simple with cracked pepper and fish sauce featuring prominently but I could be wrong, it's been a while.

Oh, that sounds excellent and quite up my alley. Was it minced pork or strips, maybe?

Haven't found the book yet to check on the recipe. The book is True Thai by Victor Sodsook and I'm 100% sure I have it but I can't find it or remember the name of the dish. I'll keep digging through my books.

[Kerry Beal]

One of my Thai books has a recipe in it for a black pepper pork dish. I don't remember which book and don't remember the name of the dish but I've done it. It's tasty if you like heavy on the pepper (which I do). I'll have to browse through my books and figure out where I saw it. It's a book I've had for at least 15 years so it's not new. For some reason I'm thinking it was really simple with cracked pepper and fish sauce featuring prominently but I could be wrong, it's been a while.

Oh, that sounds excellent and quite up my alley. Was it minced pork or strips, maybe?

Haven't found the book yet to check on the recipe. The book is True Thai by Victor Sodsook and I'm 100% sure I have it but I can't find it or remember the name of the dish. I'll keep digging through my books.

Thought I had that book around here somewhere too - but my search has been in vain so far as well.