GOURMET FILES
In praise of pepper
VASUNDHARA CHAUHAN
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The spice that launched a thousand ships and flavours an infinite variety of dishes…
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Photo: Vasundhara Chauhan
Black gold: A spice that’s influenced the course of history…
In India we’ve been cooking with pepper for more than 4,000 years but Europe got the hang of it in the Middle Ages. It was so expensive that only the very rich could afford it and, in 1498, it induced Vasco da Gama to find a sea route to India. When his crew landed in Calicut, they were met by polyglot, cosmopolitan Arabs, who spoke both Spanish and Italian. When asked why they had come, da Gama’s representative replied simply, “We seek Christians and spices.”
Today, pepper accounts for one-fifth of the world’s spice trade.
Prized possession
Peppercorns were a prized traded good, often referred to as “black gold” and used as a form of commodity money. The term “peppercorn rent” still exists today, and signifies “a very small payment used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract”.
And, about 200 years after da Gama’s arrival in the Malabar coast, French cuisine considered pepper the only spice which did not overpower the true taste of food (as distinct from fines herbes). But Henry Miller — though he was talking of chillies and aiming at a race — had a different view. He wrote: “Americans can eat garbage, provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup, mustard, chili sauce, Tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, or any other condiment which destroys the original flavor of the dish”.
There is some confusion in nomenclature: the word “pepper” is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit pippali, the word for long pepper. The English word for pepper is derived from the Old English pipor and the Latin word is also the source of German Pfeffer, French poivre, and Dutch peper. But some time in the 1700s, pepper started referring to the unrelated New World chillies as well. The word “pepper” is also used figuratively, where it means “spirit” or “energy”, and “pep” is a contraction.
Black and green peppercorns are differently treated but made from the same still-green unripe berries of the pepper plant. Green pepper is treated specially to retain its colour, and to get black peppercorns the berries are cooked briefly in hot water, to clean them, activate browning enzymes, and to prepare them for drying. During the drying process — which can take several days
— the fruit around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. White pepper is the seed only, the skin has been removed by “retting”.
The spicy heat of pepper comes mostly from the compound piperine. This exists not only in the seed but the outer shell as well, so both taste and fragrance are lost through evaporation and exposure to light. Airtight storage helps preserve pepper’s original spiciness, but, if stored after grinding, its aromatics are quickly diminished. So most culinary experts recommend grinding whole peppercorns only just before use. The mortar and pestle are traditionally used to crush pepper, but handheld pepper mills (or “pepper grinders”) are so convenient. And oh-so-trendy! As another Miller, Bryan, the NYT food critic, put it, “The disparity between a restaurant’s price and food quality rises in direct proportion to the size of the pepper mill.” And Andy Rooney: “When those waiters ask me if I want some fresh ground pepper, I ask if they have any aged pepper.” But Erma Bombeck puts it best: “I don’t know when pepper mills in a restaurant got to be right behind frankincense and myrrh in prominence. It used to be in a little jar that sat next to the salt on the table… and it was no big deal.”
And about pepper, not its mill, Samuel Johnson said, “A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing”. Or, as my father says, “An egg without pepper is like a kiss without a moustache”.
Effusive praise
Have more people said things about pepper than about other spices? There certainly seem to pithier, sharper, crisper — maybe the nature of pepper lends itself better to pungent epigram. Which is why so much cooking, so many dishes, depend on just the one spice. Eggs — fried, scrambled, boiled. Steamed vegetables. Fish, grilled. Salad. Hot buttered toast. Freshly sliced tomatoes. Indian food usually puts many more flavours in a single dish, and pepper is usually put in whole, not crushed. A chicken dish I like to make is made with just — mainly — roughly crushed peppercorns. It turns out whitish, speckled with pieces of pepper, and its simplicity belies its taste.
Chicken roast with black pepper corns
Serves 4
4 chicken breasts, skinned and boned
Quarter cup hung yoghurt (hang 1 cup yoghurt in sieve or muslin bag for half an hour. Discard whey)
Salt
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp black peppercorns
Cut each chicken breast into 3 pieces. Using the tip of a sharp knife, pierce repeatedly all over. Rub in yoghurt and leave to marinate for an hour. Roughly crush peppercorns in mortar and pestle or with a rolling pin. Rub salt onto chicken pieces. In non-stick pan, heat oil. Gently place chicken pieces in pan. Cook, uncovered, for 2 minutes. Turn over each piece. Sprinkle crushed pepper over chicken. Cover pan and cook on low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat when chicken is cooked through – check by cutting into largest piece: the meat should be white and juices run clear. Serve hot, with a freshly cut salad. Or cold, in a salad or sandwiches.
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