Juniper & Pepper Spice Blend - Condiment or Rub?

July 9, 2020

If you are a follower of our blog, you'll know that we're keen to grow Herbs and Spices at home, and cook with them whenever we can. I'm always finding ways to sneak them into our food, and experimenting with recipes to incorporate as many herbs and spices into our diet as possible. This Juniper and Pepper Spice Blend is our favourite, and this is how I make it.

Herbs and Spices for Health and Flavour

This homemade spice blend is based on one from Kami McBride's Book : The Herbal Kitchen. Kami McBride is a legendary herbalist and this is a fantastic book which I highly recommend. Kami promotes the use of herbs in your diet for health as well as flavour, and her book of great recipes to do just that.

Juniper and Pepper Mix

I'm no scientist, and I can't tell you that herbs and spices improve your health because I don't know that is true. What I do know is that too much salt is not great for you. Adding herbs and spices to your food enhances the flavour. That means you need less salt for the food to be tasty, which has to be a good thing.

What we also know is that herbs and spices were used extensively throughout history for their medical properties, well before they were used in the kitchen. So the more of them I can incorporate into our food, the happier I am.

Juniper & Pepper Spice Blend

Juniper Berries

Juniper Berries are a big favourite of mine, they are so beautifully fragrant. I use them most often crushed into buttered cabbage with the Sunday roast. Simply crush them in a pestle and mortar, then add to shredded cabbage, melted butter and black pepper in a pan. As the cabbage cooks, the berries infuse into the butter for a wonderful flavour that is the perfect accompaniment to cabbage.

Juniper berries give us that unique fragrance we so often associate with gin. They have many health-giving properties as they are antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antiviral.

Coriander Seeds

Coriander seeds come from the coriander plant which is known as Cilantro in the US. Coriander seeds also have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Some people hate fresh coriander, I love it. But even if you don't like fresh coriander, the seeds have a completely different taste so don't let them put you off trying this rub. They add a nutty, spicy element, with a hint of citrus.

Peppercorns

I use a variety of peppercorns in this mix: black peppercorns, mixed peppercorns (the blend I had was a mixture of green, white and black) and pink peppercorns.

You may be more familiar with black peppercorns than pink. Pink peppercorns are technically not a peppercorn at all. They are the dried berries of the Baies Rose plant. They impart a sweet, fruity element to your food, rather than a hot taste.

You can't put pink peppercorns in a grinder on their own because they are soft and turn to a paste rather than a powder. But when you mix them with hard peppercorns, they grind beautifully.

All these different peppercorns are widely available.

Grinder for Serving

You will need a reasonable sized grinder to cope with the juniper berries and pink peppercorns. I picked up this 2 pack of grinders which works perfectly.

Juniper & Pepper Grinder Blend

Juniper and Pepper Spice Blend Recipe

Ingredients

2 teaspoons dried juniper berries

2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

One half tablespoon mixed peppercorns (mine are green, white and black)

One half tablespoon pink peppercorns.

Method

Combine all the spices and put them in a grinder.

Uses

We serve this daily at the table alongside the salt and pepper grinders. You can also use it as a rub for meat. Andy is always popping it into his bbq recipes, most recently his BBQ Roast Pork Stuffed and cooked on the rotisserie.

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