Grains of Paradise (Melegueta Pepper) and/or Pippali (Long Pepper)

Cafe Society
1

Speak to me of special spices!

Can anyone talk to me about using either of these?
[ul]
[li]Grains of Paradise [/li][/ul]

[QUOTE=Nirmala’s Kitchen]
Grains of Paradise, also known as Melegueta pepper or Guinea pepper, is a rare spice indigenous to the coastal regions of West Africa, from Sierra Leone to Angola. The Melegueta plant, however, is not related to the pepper vine but is a member of the ginger family. The sphere-like seeds of Grains of Paradise look very much like cardamom seeds. (Cardamom is also a member of the ginger family.) Grains of Paradise has a pungent flavor with a peppery bite and hints of cardamom and camphor.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Wikipeda]
Aframomum melegueta is a species in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae… commonly known as Grains of paradise, Melegueta pepper, alligator pepper, Guinea grains or Guinea pepper.
[/QUOTE]

[ul][li]**Pippali **(Long Pepper)[/li][/ul]

[QUOTE=Nirmala’s Kitchen]
Indian long pepper, sometimes called Java pepper, is native to India and Indonesia… These peppers, which look like catkins, are harvested green and sun-dried to become grayish-black. In North and East Africa, it’s used in slow-cooked stews. This sweet, fragrant pepper has a distinctive taste of black pepper with a biting aftertaste, and Indian long pepper can be substituted for black pepper.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Wikipeda]
Long pepper (Piper longum)… a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae… is a close relative of the black pepper plant, and has a similar, though generally hotter, taste. The word *pepper *itself is derived from the Sanskrit word for long pepper, pippali.
[/QUOTE]

I ask because I love, love, love Ethiopian food, but due to a boring health issue[sup]*[/sup], I can’t eat really spicy food for a while. That is, I can eat things with *some *spices, and even small amounts of “hot” spices, but not the level of chile-laden fiery goodness that I usually would. Therefore, it is my goal to whip up my own custom batch of wimpy but flavorful berbere. Since I will be forced to take it easy with the chiles, I am interested in using as many other compromise-free ingredients as possible to approach real Ethiopian yumminess. I can get some of the offbeat key ingredients in reasonably small amounts relatively cheaply from Penzeys (e.g., ajwain seed, black cardamom), and I need to order some other stuff from Penzeys anyway. But Penzeys doesn’t stock these two unusual peppers. It’ll cost me $21 (including s/h) to get them from Nirmala’s Kitchen, the first place I found online that carries both. (There are no Indian or African groceries anywhere near me IRL. :()

Now obviously there are dozens of exotic-pepper-free recipes for berbere online. Will it be worth it to shell out for these ingredients? They both sound mouthwatering even outside the Ethiopian context – regular green cardamom and regular black pepper are probably my two favorite spices; I use them both every day. So maybe I’ll adore Aframomum melegueta and Piper longum and make spaghetti sauce with them and sprinkle them on toast, and $21 will seem like a bargain for discovering them… but I thought I’d ask around a little.

  • a chronic tongue ulceration; it’s a complication of bruxism and atavistically pointy molars. I’m working on getting it healed, but it’s taking a while. owie.
2

Sooo… nobody’s ever even heard of 'em, then?

3

I haven’t had any experience with those spices myself. I’ve been meaning to try them for some time, and I might this winter.

I do know someone who almost certainly has tried them, though. Send an email to Anne Buck, the owner of Buck’s Culinary Exotica (her email address is available at http://culinaryexotica.com/) and she’ll know if it’s worth it to get the spices and possibly be able to get you a better deal than Nirmala’s Kitchen- which seems like a spiffy place, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that Buck is a really good source: You can even send her the recipe you plan to make and she’ll sell you all the dried herbs and spices in the exact quantities you need.

I sound like an advertisement, don’t I? With a few exceptions (mostly ground cumin in a jar, which we buy at Trader Joe’s), my family gets their spices from Buck’s, and I’m usually the one sent to do the shopping. So I know Anne, and her “no minimum quantity” selling style, really well. I bought a single teaspoon of Bacon Salt from her once. But if you buy from her it doesn’t affect me in any way, and I was in no way told to say any of this!

Well, I think once she told me to tell people about the whole “send a recipe and get exactly as much as you need” situation, but in a “Tell your friends if you think they’d care” way, not a “Advertise for me for free!”

If your berebere recipe turns out to be a masterpiece, would you be willing to share it? I’ve only had Ethiopian food once, about ten years ago, but I thought it was amazing.

4

Heard of and used both.

It is difficult to explain what they taste like. Bitey, sharp, strong or intense not ‘green herbal’ not ‘sweet/tart fruity’ not ‘owchie hot capsicum pepper’ but intense.

If you have ever had sichuan pepper, it is similar. It is intense flavor in a manner similar to piper nigrum/table pepper.

Actually, to be honest, you should try them if you like exotic flavor. You might toss in cubebs and galengal as well=)

5

Well, NB, I went ahead and ordered both from Nirmala’s.

Heck yes; if all goes swimmingly, I’d even share some of the goods. Don’t hold your breath, though! I’m not known for my culinary masterpieces.

Now I’m even gladder I went ahead and ordered – thanks. I’ve had sichuan pepper in small amounts and would love to taste more of it in more dishes.

Haven’t tried cubebs yet but galangal is one of my best beloveds.

For a few years in the late 90s, we lived in Ithaca, New York, where a TRULY BRILLIANT chef, calling himself I think Sisay Sisouphone, ran a take-out place, and it was there that we first knew we were tasting (among many other delights, including purple rice) galangal. If I ever had to choose one chef to live with on that proverbial desert island, Sisay would be the one.

OK, time to mop up the drool and brush my teeth…

6

In Cameroon, people use Grains of Paradise to flavor the strong, extremely sweet, spiced black tea they drank in small quantities throughout the day. It gave kind of a warm-sweet-fruity bite to it. When they didn’t use that, they used cloves.

Actually, looking closer, it looks like it was might have been Grains of Selim that people used. They just dropped the pods in whole. Anyway, I was told the only real use of this spice was for flavoring tea and millet/milk/peanut butter porridge.

God, I would kill for a glass of that tea right now.

7

My only experience with Grains of Paradise is in making certain Belgian-style beers, unfortunately. I could find you recipes for those, if you like. :smiley:

8

I used grains of paradise for the first time in an Alton Brown apple pie recipe. To me, they are peppery, but with a brighter, more side-of-the-tongue impact. Sharper than grocery store black pepper. The smell of the freshly crushed grains always makes me think that they’ll be sour, but they aren’t.