Spicy Black Peppercorn Sauce Recipe

Black Peppercorn Sauce is an enabler for me. I love Black Pepper. It will always have a special place in my heart, it was my first “spice”. Once discovered I’d cover most of my food growing up with it.  I guess it was my first introduction to bringing a little “heat” to my meals before I properly discovered chillies. It’s not the same kind of heat, I know, but all the same.

It’s stuck with me and I love the stuff to this day. I hardly ever miss putting it in to or on most things I make. And I still pretty much drown a Pizza in the stuff..

Imagine my teenage delight (a long time ago now) when I eventually discovered there was a whole sauce made of it, and that it married perfectly with a good steak.

The shop bought Black Peppercorn sauce never really quenched my thirst though, well not without me adjusting it at least.

As I’ve grown more confident in cooking over the years I eventually decided that I’d just make it myself, and, luckily, not only is it easy to do it’s turned out pretty damn delicious. With most things these days there about a million different recipes for this already on the internet. They’re all pretty similar when it comes down to it, but this is how I make mine.

I do not use alcohol in my version of Black Peppercorn Sauce. Most of the recipes I see use Brandy as a way of adding depth to the sauce, but, it’s not something I ever have in the house. Port and Sherry are also good, or so I’m told. Again, not something I’ve ever got in.

If you’ve ever followed any of my recipes before you know I like to go big on the flavours. You are going to be hit with a strong Black Peppercorn sauce here, I’ve been a little conservative with the quantity of Black Peppercorns I use in this recipe. This tends to be around my “starting point” though and then I add more ground Black Pepper at the end, depending on what I can get away with once my wife has vetted the first pass…

It’s like most other things with cooking, you can always add more but you can’t take it away.

That being said, there are many health benefits associated with Black Pepper so it might cancel out the other stuff 😉

(I have zero clue how that works, but it sounds good… Right?)

What you’ll need:

1. 65g Salted Butter (About a third of a block, ish)
2. 1 Large Onion
3. 50g Black Peppercorns
4. 200ml Beef Stock (I use 2 Beef OXO Cubes in 200ml Water)
5. 150ml Double Cream
6. Chilli Flakes (Your weapon of choice, personally I think Chipotle and Habanero work well here)
7. Ground Black Pepper to add according to taste

It’s not a large one – Nice and simple.

Prep:

1. Finely Chop the Onion
2. Bash and bruise the Black Peppercorns
   (It’s probably the only thing I still use a pestle and mortar for after buying a spice grinder)
   
3. Get your stock ready

Again, simple – We like this, right?

Method:

1. Place the butter into a pan and melt at low to medium heat
2. Once completely melted add the chopped onion
3. Gently fry the onions and let them do that go that good see through thing that they do, should take about 10 to 15 minutes.
   
4. When you’re ready, add the Black Peppercorns and let them get nice and mixed in with the onion – Just a couple of minutes is fine.
5. Add the stock
   
6. Turn the heat up
7. Bring it to the boil for a few minutes, you’re looking to reduce the stock a little here, it’ll thicken up a little.
8. Turn the heat back down
9. Add the cream
10. Add the chilli flakes (remember you’ll have heat from the peppercorns, I use 2 teaspoons when I’m using Chipotle, one when I’m using Habanero)
11. Stir
12. Let it warm through but don’t let it boil or you’ll ruin the cream.

And, that’s pretty much it.  My Black Peppercorn sauce. I feel like I added steps 5 – 7 to make it seem a little more complicated than it is.

If you taste the sauce at this point and think it could use a little more “pep” then add in the Ground Black Pepper. I often do when I get the nod from my wife that it’s OK to do so.

(Although one time I made it and apparently my verbal “Oooohhh, that’s good” delighted exclamation from the kitchen prompted my wife to ask if I’d “ruined it”)

Also, depending on what kind of stuck you used you might want to throw in a little salt as well, taste the sauce before you commit to putting it over your delicious steak. I don’t want to be accused of ruining your steak anymore than I do my wife’s.

As always, if you make this sauce and want to let me know your thoughts, good or bad, then give me a shout in the comments.

Enjoy!