Peppermongers
Tell us a bit about Peppermongers. What's it all about?
Peppermongers is a small independent peppercorn specialist set up in 2011. We bring you the world’s best quality and exotic peppers. That’s it. Cracking pepper.
Give us a few examples of your product range. Any particular favourites?
We use and sell a lot of the Piper Nigrum species available in green, black and white (it’s the same Tellicherry pepper at different points of the processing). I’m addicted to the nuclear, tongue numbing Sichuan Pepper but my favourite has to be Long Pepper - the original pepper as used by the Romans and the Three Musketeers – it’s floral, spicy and pungent. Perfect.
What inspires you?
Great ingredients cooked simply. And Vasco de Gama - who risked everything to find great spices. And Evel Knievel, or anyone who can jump over 13 buses on a motorbike, like Gonzo from The Muppets.
What's your favourite recipe you like to use one of your peppers in?
Nothing beats a great peppercorn sauce or a peppered steak. Apart from two great peppercorn sauces and two peppered steaks, obviously.
Anything else you want to tell us?
Add pepper to dishes at the last minute to get the maximum aroma. Avoid plastic or steel pepper mills like the plague. The reason they stop working is that you slowly eat the mechanism as it grinds down into your food!