Timur berry

Where to use Timur berry ?

Explore its gentle lemony flavours

Don’t overpower the superbly delicate and floral notes of this berry in strong flavoured dishes. Best used infused or cracked and sprinkled over just before serving.

How to get the best from your Timur berry

Our recipe ideas for this Timur berry:

·         Scallops in Timur sauce: sear your scallops for 1 minute on each side. Leave to one side. Add 10cl of orange juice to the scorching frying pan then add 1/2 teaspoon of ground Timur berries. Pour the juice over the scallops and serve immediately;

·         Banana compote with Timur: fry 4 bananas in 30g of unsalted butter, 2 cardamom pods and a few ground Timur berries;

·         Salmon with Timur berries: sprinkle cracked Timur berries over your slices of smoked salmon;

·         Timur infused whipped cream: heat half the cream then before it boils pour the hot cream onto the Timur berries. Cover to let the berries infuse then chill before whipping the cream;

·         Peach sorbet with Timur berries: sprinkle cracked Timur berries over your home-made sorbet just before serving;

·         White cabbage soup with Timur berries: add 2 pinches of cracked Timur berries before cooking the cabbage and the onion;

·         Crème brulée with Timur berries: infuse 5 cracked Timur berries in the cream and strain before cooking.

Terre Exotique’s lemon tarts with Timur berry

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry:

250g flour;

140g salted butter;

80g sugar;

1 egg;

15g pine nuts.

For the lemon-Timur cream:

2 large lemons;

150g unsalted butter;

130g sugar;

3 eggs;

1 teaspoon of cracked Timur berries.

Method

Start with the lemon-Timur cream. Peel 1 lemon and put the peel in a saucepan with a small amount of water, bring to the boil then remove the water. Add 150g of butter to the saucepan with the lemon peel and melt over a low heat.

Beat the eggs and the sugar in a mixing bowl then add the juice from the two lemons, the cracked Timur berries and mix thoroughly.

Once the butter has melted, remove the peel and pour the butter onto the eggs, lemon juice and sugar mixture, and beat thoroughly until the mix forms a thick paste.

Leave to cool then place in the fridge for 3 hours.

Then prepare the shortcrust pastry. Rub the flour and butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then add the sugar, eggs and pine nuts and mix to a firm dough. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour then roll out the pastry with a rolling pin on a floured work surface.

Blind bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 180°C.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Place the lemon-Timur cream in a piping bag and pipe onto the shortcrust pastry.

For that perfect finishing touch, place a few mini meringues on the lemon pie to decorate.

Strong notes and unique aromas

Timur berries look almost like a mini chestnut, (without the spikes!). Timur berry releases aromatic notes of grapefruit, exotic fruit and camphor with subtle floral hints. Surprise your palate with the delicate floral and fruity yet slightly spicy flavours of this Timur berry.

The famous Timur berry 

This Nepalese berry is picked from small endemic trees from the Zanthoxylum armatum species which is part of the Rustaceae family. It grows in the wild in the Mahabharat range between the Terai and the Pahar at altitudes of more than 2,000m. With its fresh and citrus notes it is easy to see why some call it the grapefruit pepper. This little berry is used in all dishes from the Terai lowlands of South Nepal. It is here in the birth place of Buddha, amongst the Tharu villages of thatched mud huts that these thorny bushes unfold their treasure.

Once harvested, Timur berries are dried then sorted by hand. Local women sort on average 5 kilos of berries a day on large bamboo trays. The sorting process involves 3 separate stages: removing branches and other bits, separating the black seeds from the pericarp, and finally, selecting the ripest berries based on their colour.

Timur berry is also known as the “grapefruit pepper ” due to its acidic zesty notes, but it is also called “Timut pepper”.

Where does this Timur berry come from?

The history behind this berry full of surprising aromas

The first time Timur berries were used dates back to the first settlements in South Nepal. Today, the berry is at the heart of Nepalese cuisine and is used in all traditional dishes. Whilst in Europe this berry is eagerly sought after by top chefs, in its home country Nepal, it is just an everyday spice and is sold on every market in Kathmandu.

Agriculture plays a major role in Nepal, each family is often self-sufficient thanks to its beehive, rice paddy and Timur berry plants.

“Timur” means “red pepper” in Nepali and includes all local pepper-like spices.

In the past, the roots of the shrub on which the berries grow were used to make colouring. Timur berry branches were also used as toothbrushes.