Sweet long pepper sugar

And sweet long pepper cream

I love the pass the parcel of cooking. Years ago, when planting many dozens of Szechuan peppers, I discovered Christine McFadden’s excellent book Pepper. It remains a close companion, introducing me to types of pepper I’d never heard of and giving me ideas about what to do with them. I’d heartily recommend acquiring a copy, especially as it’s currently a bit of a bargain here.

I came up with a recipe for sweet long pepper sugar having been inspired by Christine’s recipe for similar, and it makes excellent use of long pepper’s gentle chocolately, cinnamon hints. It is so good on and in so many things, including this incredible Cardamom, pear and long pepper trifle that House and Garden have published from my new book, SPICE/ a cook’s companion.

Long pepper’s back of the throat tingle is ideal here. And may I say (not in a shy way) how very good mace and cardamom are together in this too.

In SPICE, this is included as just the cream recipe, but I’ve taken to keeping a batch of the spicy sugar in a tub for sprinkling on fruit, or yogurt, or over cake, and whisking into cream when I need it. I’d heartily recommend doing the same.

4 tbsp muscovado sugar

4 tbsp white caster sugar

8 cardamom pods, seeds only

1 generous blade of mace or 2 smaller

3 Indonesian long pepper catkins

Place everything into a spice grinder and reduce to a fairly fine dust. Store in an air tight tub.

For the cream

Whisk 300ml double cream until it just thinks about thickening, then add the spicy sugar. Whisk just enough to thicken a little more.

Thank you Christine for the inspiration and the excellent Pepper book.