Recipes with peppercorns

Salmon au poivre: fresh salmon (or tuna) steaks pressed with crushed peppercorns and brushed with olive oil, then broiled or grilled. Three ingredients, French steakhouse technique, 30 minutes.

Pisnyi borsch is a traditional Ukrainian meatless beet soup with dried boletus mushrooms, root vegetables, and beet kvas for a tart, jewel-toned broth served with vushka dumplings.

Poached salmon steaks in white wine with a creamy horseradish, sour cream, and mint sauce made from the strained poaching liquid. A light, elegant fish dinner for two.

Crispy skinned red snapper crusted with eight spices including Szechuan peppercorn, star anise, cinnamon, and cumin. Pan-seared then oven-roasted for shatteringly crisp skin.

Pitlai is a South Indian lentil stew with bitter gourd (karela), chickpeas, tamarind, and a ground coconut-spice paste. A tangy, complex vegetarian curry with toor dal and jaggery.

This rich, earthy soup has but 100 calories per serving if made with non-fat milk.

Harissa sauce made with fresh or dried red chiles, garlic and a deeply aromatic Moroccan-style broth of chicken, chickpeas, saffron, cinnamon, orange peel and honey. A vivid North African accompaniment for couscous.

Traditional German sauerbraten with a four-day vinegar marinade, slow-braised rump roast, and a tangy gingersnap-and-sour-cream gravy. An old-world Sunday dinner worth the wait.

Mexican escabeche oysters pickled in vinegar with garlic, carrots, cauliflower, and herbs. Briefly cooked then marinated overnight for a tangy, briny cold appetizer with lime and jalapeno.

Greek baked rabbit (lagos kounelli fournou) marinated for days in red wine and herbs, then slow-braised in a tomato-wine sauce warmed with allspice. A rustic, fall-off-the-bone game dish from the Greek countryside.

Creamed turnip green soup with shallots, white wine, peppercorns, and parmesan pureed into a silky, vibrant green bisque. An elegant way to use turnip greens in under 40 minutes.

Salt-smothered chicken buried in a bed of red-hot rock salt with ginger, tangerine peel, and Szechuan peppercorn marinade sealed in the cavity. An ancient Cantonese technique that steams the bird to silken tenderness.

Spicy tamale pie with simmered beef chuck and pork shoulder, dried chile gravy, raisins, and olives under a cornmeal masa-style crust. Tex-Mex history on a plate.

Microwave Brunswick stew with chicken, lima beans, corn, okra, and tomatoes. A quicker take on the Southern classic that builds its own broth from scratch in about 40 minutes.

Grilled pepper sirloin steaks marinated overnight in steak sauce, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, and crushed whole peppercorns. Bold, spicy, and built for the grill.

Pressure cooker rogan josh simmers tender mutton in a rich, nutty gravy of freshly roasted and ground coconut, almonds, and whole spices, with yogurt stirred in gradually. An aromatic Indian curry made fast in the pressure cooker.