Ma khaen - Laotian mountain<tc>pepper</tc>

This mountainpepper, which in Laos is called ma khaen, grows wild in the mountainous Luang Prabang, in the northern Laos.

In stock. Temporarily unavailable. In stock, the Vietnamese mountainpepper, same plant, same berry, different region.

The pepper It is primarily collected by women and is a significant source of income. In the Luang Prabang region, ma khaen is the fifth most important non-timber forest product, according to FAO data. For a long time, the bushes were completely cleared to harvest the berries; nowadays, harvesting is done sustainably, without deforestation.

This mountainpepper is the berry of an exclusively wild Szechuan treepepper, or actually peppers. The berry comes from the Zanthoxylum rhetsa or the Zanthoxylum limonella. It is famous for its flavor palette, not so much for its pungency, as you would expect from a Szechuan.pepper would expect.

He has a soft, tingling sharpness and the unmistakable citrus flavour (mandarin) that becomes stronger and sweeter when the pepper is heated. The tree on which this pepper grows, is the Indian mountainpepper Or, in its Indian form, triphal, which grows naturally in an area called the Indamalaya, the ecozone that extends from India to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, including Vietnam. The tree grows there at altitudes of up to 1,500 meters in moist, dense forests.

The berry is quite small, like that of the andaliman, and, like the andaliman, is harvested by hand. No easy feat, as the branches of the Zanthoxylum have vicious spines. The berries grow in smaller clusters that, when dried, resemble "mini star anise." Each berry contains a single seed.

We also have a Vietnamese version of the same plant.

The unique sharpness experience of sanshol

Characteristic of all Zanthoxylumpeppers, and therefore also for the Szechuanpepper is the tingling you experience on the tip of your tongue due to a substance in the pepper called sanshool, named after the Japanese sanshō. The pungency is caused by the amides in the fruit's peel: α-, β-, γ-, and δ-sanshool, α-hidroxy sanshool, and β-hidroxy sanshool. The numbing effect is primarily caused by γ sanshool and α-hidroxy sanshool. The amount of α-hidroxy sanshool in the berries can amount to (well over) 50‰ of the dry weight, while γ sanshool accounts for around 5‰.

The tingling sensation is accompanied by a slight numbness, jokingly compared to tasting a 9-volt battery. A single berry is enough to experience that! This somato-sensation, stimulation by touch, has been used for centuries as an anesthetic in traditional Asian medicine. Its effects are very complex and the subject of extensive studies. Hydroxy-α-sanshol, in particular, is said to cause the tingling, and there are certain parallels with the pungency experienced with capsaicin, the pungent substance in chili peppers.pepper, but also with menthol and mustard oil.

Smell and taste

The berries have a complex aroma, in which you tangerine peel and tea, but also anise and menthol, and the sweet notes of angelica. The scent is related to that of black pepper due to the high content of sabinene, which is higher in the dried berry than in the fresh one.This is the taste palette:

• D-limonene (dipentene), sweet citrus flavor, found in modest amounts in nutmeg, mace, and cardamom,
• β-phellandrene, pleasant mint and citrus flavor, also found in allspice,
• β-pinene, woody pine scent, as in cumin, pine cone, juniper berry and hemp,
• sabinene, responsible for the woody, camphor-like flavour of blackcurrant, among other things pepper
• carvotan acetone, also minty, as in angelica.
• dihydrocarvol as in black pepper and black tea, and
• the bitter terpinol, - mainly found in the seeds - as in cranberries.

This pepper It is therefore delicious in combination with the aforementioned spices, and in general with products that pair well with citrus, such as shellfish and shellfish, white fish, salmon, white butter sauces, veal, pork, and duck. It can be eaten raw and added at the last minute, and is delicious in vegetable salads, desserts, or with fruit.

In India people prefer to pepper Triphal (Marathi) or triphala (Gujarati) is said to be used 'pure', that is, not in combination with other spices. Triphal is used mainly in fish dishes, just like in Vietnam, where the mountainpepper Eat with grilled fish, grilled or dried meat, and smoked buffalo meat. Sometimes meat is rubbed with ground mountainpepper to make the meat last longer.

Usage

Roast the whole berries. Crush the berries to release the seeds. It's best to crush them with a mortar and pestle; the seed pods are best ground. The same goes for whole berries (with seeds), provided they've been roasted until crispy beforehand.

Features:

• 100% berries of the Zanthoxylum rhetsa
• origin: Luang Prabang, Laos
  

Assortment

• available in glass (30 grams), stand-up pouch and test tube (10 ml)
• larger quantities on request

Gift wrapping

• The jar is available in a tasteful gift packaging, consisting of a cube box filled with black tissue paper.
• For an overview of our gift packaging, please refer to the gift packaging section.

General advice

• my khaen is a versatile Szechuanpepper, used both raw and roasted.
  

Save:

• save your pepper in closed packaging
• preferably store in a dark, dry and cool place
• best before - - -
• This expiration date is an indication

Do you want to know how ma khaen smaakt ?

You can also try a test tube. The tube contains sufficient pepper to fathom the essence of taste.

Batch number

The batch number helps us track which batch an item originates from. It's listed on the packing slip and invoice.