Meat & Heat - Cooking with Hot Pepper

One of my favorite combinations is meat and hot peppers.  There is something about meat, particularly red meat, and hot peppers that I find irresistibly enticing.  Like most “chile heads” I think a wide variety of foods are amenable to heat augmentation, but for our present purposes I wish to focus on meat dishes that are hot.

The Difference Between Hot & Spicy

Allow me to propose an informal distinction between “hot” and “spicy” in the interest of clarity.  By “hot” I am specifically referring to chile peppers and more specifically, capsaicin, the chemical compound that gives hot peppers their fire.  I think of “spicy” as spices or aromatic vegetables that are piquant, but do not contain capsaicin.  Thus, black pepper and garlic are spicy while jalapenos are hot.

I see four avenues by which to incorporate hot peppers into your meat:  hot chile oil, dried ground chile pepper, hot sauces, and most obviously, directly employing whole hot peppers, be them fresh, dried or canned.

Make Your Own Chile Oil

You can buy chile oil or you can easily make your own by simply adding ground hot peppers to a container of oil and allowing it time to infuse.  The oil can be used as a constituent for a marinade or another sauce, or to sauté or pan-fry your meat.  Or you can drizzle some on at the end as a finishing touch.

There are many varieties of pre-made, dried, ground hot pepper.  Some are in powdered form such as ground cayenne and some are in flakes like the crushed hot pepper found in pizza parlors everywhere.  But of course, buying whole chiles, (fresh or dried), and making your own will afford the best flavor.

If the peppers are already dried, merely whiz them in a spice grinder or food processor and then store in a jar.  If they are fresh, cut them open, spread them out on a sheet tray, place them in a 200 degree F. oven overnight until dried, and then grind them.

Ground hot pepper can be added to a marinade or a spice rub applied to meat before cooking.  Or you can sprinkle some in as the dish is cooking or again, use it as a condiment it at the end of cooking.  Like most dried spices however, you will reap its fullest flavor if the recipe in question involves liquid and the ground chiles are allowed to slowly permeate it.

Should I Buy Store-Bought Chile Powder?

If you plan on relying on store-bought chile powder, please note that there is a difference between chile (with an “e”) powder and chili (with an “i”) powder.  Chile (with an “e”) powder is solely ground chile peppers.  Chili (with an “i”) powder is a mixture of chile powder and other spices such as cumin, coriander, garlic, etc.

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All About White Peppercorns

In some culinary circles, there is hot debate over which sort of pepper to use, white or black.  Some chefs use white pepper strictly for aesthetic reasons:  they use white pepper in white or light-colored dishes and sauces so there won’t be any black flecks.  Other chefs find white pepper to be a more complex yet subtle flavor than that of black pepper, which can be pretty in-your-face.

Still other chefs really dislike white pepper and refuse to use it.  Famously, Jacques Pepin always disagreed with Julia Child on their show, Julia and Jacques:  Cooking at Home, regarding the use of white pepper.  Julia used white pepper for aesthetic reasons, and Jacques hated the stuff and used black.  He was even willing to “suffer” black specks in his béchamel!

So what is all the fuss about?   Is there really a huge difference between white and black pepper?

Are there certain times when one should be used over the other?  Honestly, the bottom line, as it so often is in cooking, is use what you like.  For those of you unfamiliar with white pepper, it comes from the same plant as black pepper. Just like green bell peppers allowed to ripen on the vine eventually turn red, white pepper is allowed to ripen fully on the vine, and then the now red or yellow outer skins are removed.

This can be accomplished in a couple of ways.  The skins can be soaked off in water, or the skins can eventually be rinsed off by letting water flow over the peppercorns continuously.  The second method results in a much cleaner final product, although both taste very similar. After the skins are removed, the creamy white centers are dried.

And what does white pepper taste like?

It is a little bit hot, a little bit winey and a lot earthy.  For me, the key distinction between white and black pepper is white pepper’s earthiness.  In dishes where I want to highlight earthiness, I use white pepper.  In dishes where I am just looking for a base note of heat, I use black pepper.

Some cuisines lend themselves more naturally to one over the other.  For example, white pepper is widely used in Indian, Asian and Mexican cuisines.  To me, the food from these regions is very earthy and highly spiced.  I don’t necessarily mean “hot,” just well spiced.  Although I often use white pepper in white sauces, I really use it more for the flavor than the aesthetics.  I also love to pair white pepper with another of my favorite earthy spices, cumin.

While you can purchase ground white pepper, I recommend buying whole white peppercorns as the flavor will last much longer.  Black and white pepper both begin to lose potency upon grinding, so grinding fresh right before using will give the best pepper flavor.

Occasionally, I have seen whole white peppercorns at the grocery store, but they are usually very expensive, and they can be difficult to find.  I recommend buying them in bulk at Amazon.com where you will find a large selection. See White Peppercorns

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All About Asian Sauces

Asian cuisine is extremely multifaceted.  Indeed, Asia is the world’s largest continent and home to more countries than any other land mass.  To make things exponentially more diverse, most countries have manifold cuisines, each emanating from varying geographic locations.  China, Thailand and India are just a few examples of nations with heterogeneous culinary profiles.

One of the things that I love about Asian cooking is the heavy reliance on flavoring agents such as spices, hot peppers, and particularly sauces.  Asian cooking embraces all kinds of sauces, many of them piquant, salty, and sharply flavored.  Experimenting with these sauces will absolutely broaden your culinary horizons.  With that goal in mind I present to you a list of well-known Asian sauces.  I didn’t include soy sauce, despite my deep passion for it.  Everyone is cognizant of soy sauce.  I wish to take you deeper into the delicious and zesty world of Asian sauces.  While all large American supermarkets carry most or all of these sauces, your best bet is an Asian market for the best brands and prices.

HOISIN SAUCE

Also known as Peking sauce or more colloquially Chinese barbeque sauce, Hoisin sauce, like traditional American barbeque sauce, is sweet and spicy.  As with all of the sauces yet to be showcased, Hoisin can vary from chef to chef, region to region, and from one manufacturer to another.  Nevertheless, the most common ingredients include water, sugar, soybeans, vinegar, salt, flour, and of course, chile peppers.  It is employed as both a flavoring agent and as a table condiment in all kinds of meat, poultry and fish dishes.  It is used to make Chinese barbequed pork, the well known American-Chinese restaurant spare ribs, and many Vietnamese dishes as well.  Hoisin sauce is the condiment of choice for the classic Peking duck.  Strips of the roasted duck meat are placed in a “pancake,” (basically a thin tortilla), with Hoisin, green onion, and cucumber.  It is then rolled and eaten like a soft taco.

DUCK SAUCE

Duck sauce, a.k.a. plum sauce, is actually an American invention and found in literally every American-Chinese restaurant.  Interestingly, its aquatic-fowl title came from American-Chinese restaurants who served it with Peking duck, as opposed to the traditional Hoisin sauce.  It is a thick, sweet and sour sauce made from plums, apricots or peaches, vinegar, ginger and chiles, although it packs no discernable punch.  American origins or not, duck sauce is an omnipresent dipping sauce for ribs, egg rolls, spring rolls, shrimp toast, General Tso’s chicken, and other fried yum-yums.

OYSTER SAUCE

OK, now we get back to our Asian roots.  Oyster sauce is a thick, dark brown sauce beloved in Chinese and Thai cuisine.  As its name implies it is made from oysters, as well as brine and soy sauce.  When purchasing oyster sauce make sure to read the ingredient list on the label.  As with all products, the ingredients are listed in descending order by weight.  Cheap oyster sauces are comprised mostly of water while quality brands are primarily oysters.  Naturally I advise that you to part with an extra George Washington or two and procure the good stuff.  Oyster sauce imparts a rich and savory dimension to food.  While it can serve as a condiment, it is more likely utilized as a flavoring component of stir fries, noodle dishes and marinades.

FISH SAUCE

As gross as it may sound, fish sauce is made from the liquid of salted fermented fish, usually anchovies.  It is renowned throughout Southeast Asia.  Depending on the admixture, chiles, sugar, salt and a variety of other spices are added.  It is both a condiment and a flavor-enhancing building block of multifarious dishes and other sauces.  It is very intensely flavored and thus a little goes a long way.  Straight fish sauce may taste a little funky to some people but when blended with other ingredients a whole new dimension of flavor is created.  For dumplings, egg rolls, and other dip-friendly victuals try a combination of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, hot chile oil, and a few squirts of fish sauce.  The primordial fish sauce was garum, a likewise fish-fermented concoction invented by the Romans.

BLACK BEAN SAUCE

More of a paste than a sauce, black bean sauce, also called douchi, is not made from the black beans familiar to Latin Cuisine.  Rather it is fabricated from fermented soy beans.  The resulting product looks similar to Latin black beans.  Black bean sauce is salty and very pungent.  Like fish sauce, it should also be applied in moderation.  It is also incorporated into all sorts of concoctions: stir fries, vegetable, meat, poultry and fish recipes.   Clams in black bean sauce make for a very tasty combination.  Two variants, black bean and garlic sauce and hot black bean sauce, (with chile peppers of course), are particularly delicious.

SRIRACHA & SAMBAL

Sriracha and Sambal are both hot and very spicy chile based sauces widely popular throughout Southeast Asia.  Sriracha is also known as “rooster sauce” from the iconic rooster found on the bottle.  Once again, exact recipes fluctuate widely.  Even the chiles that form the base of these sauces run the gamut and include Thai chiles, cayenne, jalapenos, habaneros and countless other varieties.  Then, vinegar, garlic, salt, sugar, citrus juices, you name it, are included.  Sriracha and Sambal function as both an ingredient and a condiment.  But beware; these bad boys are not for the faint of heart.  They pack a serious punch of heat.  While the sky is the limit in terms of uses, I am especially fond of these sauces slathered on duck, ribs or fried chicken wings.

Chef Mark R. Vogel
FoodForThought.com