Possibly My Favorite Sauce(s) Part III
More peppercorn deliciousness
Will be continuing to “pepper” this newsletter with my favorite sauces as time goes by <pun intended>
This drop is spinning up a riff on sauce au poivre which I wrote up already and should be in your home cooking repertoire
Possibly My Favorite Sauce(s) Pt 2
We are staying in France partly because it was the first cuisine I dove into and developed a true love for. To this day the flavors of France are always comforting and satisfying to me. Today we are talking Steak au Poivre, which is simply steak with a peppercorn sauce, and I’m going to give the way I make it when I’m craving this dish.
If you missed that recipe please go back and check it out as it will make this riff much easier.
Green Peppercorn au Poivre
I wrote briefly before the launch of my Kraken Spice line about how interesting it was to go down a deep rabbit hole of finding truly high quality peppercorns what a difference it makes in your cooking and developing flavors.
Most people are familiar with black and white peppercorns but fewer know about green peppercorns, so here’s a quick TLDR.
Green peppercorns can be thought of as the most pure expression of the peppercorn. The unripened green pods of the Piper nigrum plant are picked before ripeness just as you would a green tomato in the summer.
The issue is that the unripened (green) peppercorns have an extremely short shelf life which is why they’re near impossible to find fresh. Most commonly they are dried or preserved and jarred/canned in a salt brine solution.
The flavor is vibrant, piquant, fresh and vegetal making green peppercorns very fun to use with pork, seafood and vegetables. Think of raw capers blended with mild peppercorns and you’ll have an idea of the flavor profile.
While unconventional there have been riffs using green peppercorns in the classic black peppercorn sauce au poivre so below is my favorite and definitely recommend you give this a try on your next steak night.
The whole idea behind this sauce is building layers of flavor through multiple reductions. Using a mild fortified wine with a little more sweetness allows the flavor of the green peppercorns to really shine.