Szechuan pepper

[redbird]

Since I can't eat capsicum-spiced food anymore, cattitude and I have been experimenting, in a low-key sort of way. One thing he wanted to try was Szechuan peppercorns, but it took a while to find them. We were on Canal Street last weekend and L wanted to show marykaykare and sneerpout a Chinese supermarket. Being a market, they had spices, which included big bags of these, so we got some.

This evening, Cattitude made his more-or-less-usual lentil stew: lentils, sausage or leftover cooked meat (in this case, chicken sausages), onions, carrots, cooked in chicken broth. He added a half dozen of the Szechuan peppercorns to the pot.

Conclusion: I think I like them, and they are entirely safe for me to eat. More experimentation is clearly in order. I don't think they will entirely replace the capsicum I can no longer eat, nor are they likely to displace ginger or even horseradish in my affections, but they may restore a bit of what I'm missing. But part of why they won't displace horseradish is that the shape/preparation is so different: horseradish is something I can smear on cold roast beef, and these are something that can be simmered in stew for an hour.

Comments

What my cookbooks say...

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I've been advised to either toast them in a skillet, then grind and add to a dish (http://www.recipezaar.com/library/szechuan-peppercorn-441), or roast them some other way before grinding in a pepper mill or mortar and pestle and adding. One doesn't just add the whole peppercorn, which, of course, isn't a peppercorn at all (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper).

Re: What my cookbooks say...

[redbird]

I am informed that they can't legally be imported into the US unless they're heated to 160°F to kill any citrus canker that might be on the plant.

Indeed, that is true.

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

However, I am told that one still toasts the peppercorn before grinding it, and then one uses the powder, rather than the whole peppercorn, perhaps because the seeds are so gritty. One chef told me that toasting would release more taste.

I've tried it both ways and got more flavor from the toasted and powdered version than the whole one, without having any seeds hanging around in the dish. Toasting it was a bit of a PITA, however.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

How do you do with black pepper? As far as I can tell, the "hot" chemicals are capsaicin, peperin (black pepper and long pepper), allyl isothiocyanate (mustard, wasabi, horseradish, radish, and turnip), and hydroxy-alpha sanshool (Szechuan peppercorns). The way I experience them, pepperin is the closest in effect to capsaicin -- although Lis perceives them differently than I do, so I know it's not universal.

[redbird]

I do fine with black pepper--or the last year would have been much more annoying. Also with all the horseradish/mustard stuff, and with garlic and ginger.

[kiya]

For the record, I think that Szechuan peppercorns added to a basic cream sauce are fantastic.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

I was thinking something along those lines for my next trick. Do you add them whole, crushed, powdered, or some combination?

[kiya]

I've just chucked them in whole. Though seeing people comment on the toasting/grinding, I may try that next time. (I haven't done a cream sauce thing in a while because whispercricket was going lactose-free, but I think she's changed her mind on that somewhat lately.)

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

I now have a copy of Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (guess which movie whump saw last weekend) so I should be able to sort out the order in which to cook that stew recipie, which looks very tasty.

[redbird]

If it's not in Child, I can ask cattitude.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

It's a very straightforward and malleable thing. Brown some cut-up fatty meat (The original recipe called for lamb breast, I mostly use chicken sausages, 1/4-3/4 lb. is plausible. Non-fatty meat doesn't work as well unless you use bacon fat to cook it in.), remove, cook a diced onion and some garlic in the leftover fat until nearly transparent, add a diced carrot (and, if you like, a diced celery stalk, or any of a number of other things) and cook three more minutes, add the meat, 14 oz. chicken broth or broth-water mix or water, 1/2 cup lentils, and such spices as seem good (almost always including some rosemary). Cover and simmer for 55 minutes. If you like, add peas or short-cooking spices five minutes before it's done. I use a dutch oven, but a covered pot should work. The recipe this is based on is from Cooking for Two Today by Hewitt and Blanchard, a book I use a lot.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

Oh, this only works with normal whole brownish lentils. The split bright orange ones fail miserably.

[jesse_the_k]

Ah, a fellow capsicum avoider. It can make eating out a little annoying, yes? I have a "zippy beans" recipe which piles on the ginger, garlic and mustard to great effect -- I'll post it in my DW shortly.

[redbird]

Not just eating out, but cooking: I've only been a capsicum avoider for about 15 months, so a significant amount of what I know how to do, and what cattitude knows how to do, does use capsicum in various forms.

However, it also happens that I work a couple of blocks from a stretch of Lexington Avenue that is known these days as "Curry Hill" for the number of South Asian restaurants and shops there. The first year or so I was working there, I was taking advantage of all-you-can-eat lunch buffets, but there's not enough non-spicy on them to be worth my while.

[pdcawley.livejournal.com]

Generally with Szechuan pepper, the trick is to toast it, crush the husks and chuck 'em into the dish right at the end. If you cook 'em too long, you don't get the amazing tingly/numbing sensation from them.

If you put a little of the crushed pepper on your tongue and you don't get a tingle, then you've not got hold of the good stuff yet.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Am wondering if there's something you could make with them that could then be smeared on cold roast beef -- a tapenade or a homemade mayo or something?