Need to ground peppercorns to stir fry clams?

Need to ground peppercorns to stir fry clams? - Daughter and senior mother standing at table in kitchen and stirring dish in frying pan while preparing food for dinner

The Spicy Stir-fried Clam with Peppercorn & Chili (椒香炒蜆) was another irresistible dish which used five different spices to create this peppery taste. I also had mantis shrimp here before with the same spices and it was equally delicious.

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I never knew you can add whole peppercorns to stir-fried clams! Can you? Do I throw peppercorn spheres into stir fry pan?

Or do you ground peppercorns first?



Best Answer

Yes, it's whole peppercorns.

In both Chinese and French cuisine, it's not unusual to season a brothy sauce or braising liquid using whole peppercorns. It's one way of giving the sauce a peppery flavor without having little black flecks all over the food, they way you would with ground pepper. And, like other whole spices, whole peppercorns release their flavor better if it's going to be a long braise.

As @AMto points out, it wouldn't be unusual to see whole Sichuan peppercorns in a Chinese recipe as well, and you can't tell what's meant just from the text. You can, however, tell from the photo:

picture of clam dish, with peppercorns circled in red

Those two objects look just like peppercorns that have been braised in liquid to me. They do not look like Sichuan peppercorns.




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