Dehydrated Green Pepper

Produit livré en sachet refermable 

°°°

Uses in Cooking:

Its flavor is far from mild, but that's also what we love about it...!

To use dehydrated green pepper, you have two options:

1. As is: Simply grind it in a mill or mortar, alone or mixed with other berries, like in a five-pepper blend.
2. Rehydrated: As needed. This is the only stage of pepper ripeness where it can be rehydrated so that its grains regain the softness of fresh pepper. To do this, place the required amount of dehydrated pepper in simmering water for 15 to 20 minutes. Then drain the grains and use them as fresh pepper, for example, in a steak sauce! You can create delicious, quick, and foolproof meat sauces with shallots melted in butter, fresh cream, and Cognac, to which you’ll add your rehydrated pepper. A recipe from a great chef! You can also use this sauce to coat duck breast or even some fish.

You can also use it in meat or fish terrines.

Who am I?

Origin: India

Scientific name: Piper nigrum

Green pepper consists of berries from the pepper plant harvested before maturity. They can be found fresh (very rarely in our regions), preserved in brine, or dehydrated as in this case.

The seeds of Piper nigrum go through different stages depending on their degree of maturity:

1. Green Pepper: First harvested when immature.
2. Black Pepper: Harvested when slightly more mature, reddish, and will turn black as it dries. Its skin gives it strength and heat. It is the most widely used pepper in the world, pairing well with all dishes and spices!
3. Red Pepper: Harvested at full maturity, they can be consumed as is, just dried.
4. White Pepper: These berries are soaked and rubbed to remove their skin, then dried until they are white. It is considered to have a finer taste than black pepper and is less pungent.

The pepper plant is native to the west coast of India, specifically the Malabar coast in the state of Kerala. Today, it has, of course, been planted in many other regions around the world, such as Southeast Asia (Indonesia and Malaysia), Madagascar, and Brazil. Recently, Vietnam has become the largest global producer of pepper. Each climate and terroir where pepper plants grow imparts different flavors, similar to wine!

The term "pepper" is applied to many spices, from Sichuan pepper to pink peppercorns, including certain chili peppers. However, only the seeds of Piper nigrum (the traditional black, white, and green peppers), Piper cubeba (cubeb pepper), and Piper longum (long pepper) are legally allowed to be called "pepper."

It is also worth noting that it is the amides of piperine that give pepper its spicy flavor!

A Little History:

Pepper was already known in ancient times, being used in Greece under Alexander the Great as well as in ancient Rome.

Pepper and a few other rare spices were long used as currency after the Arab conquest of Alexandria in 642 CE, due to their high price. This is where the expression "to pay in cash" comes from, derived from "to pay in spices"!

The exorbitant price of pepper in the Middle Ages and Italy's monopoly on its trade were largely responsible for the Portuguese search for a sea route to India. This route was discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1498, leading to a treaty between the two countries granting the Portuguese exclusive rights to half the world. A century later, they would lose this monopoly to the Dutch with their East India Company and then to the English.