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).

[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.

[kiya]

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

[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.

[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.

[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?