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szechuan peppers
I made myself a "pspycy szechuan stirfry" (I mean, spicy. But doesn't pspycy look way better?) from one of my vegan cookzines. It asked for chinese chili sauce, which we don't usually keep at home, so I decided to look for the chili powder. As I couldn't find the powder, I stumbled upon szechuan peppercorns, which I had bought in Milwaukee a few years ago. They're quite different from the peppers I usually use, so I haven't used them much yet, but since I was making a szechuan stirfry, I thought, why not? So I took a teaspoon, and roasted them in the pan (1 part peppers, 2 parts salt, but there was already a fair bit of soy sauce in my dish so I roasted the peppers on their own). They started smelling like pot, like if I was hot-knifing pot. Then I ground them. I finally found the chili powder, so I put some of that too.
Turns out that I didn't put enough chili powder, the stirfry was kinda underwhelming on the flavour side. (Except for the tofu, which I half replaced with tempeh. Yum tempeh. Tempeh is like the peanut butter version of tofu.) I didn't quite taste the peppers while eating the dish. However, now that I'm done, my mouth is tingling. It's a bit like the light stinging effect you get when you start brushing your teeth and the toothpaste gets to your gums, except without the peppermint flavour. It was starting to pass after a while, but now I'm drinking tea and it's bringing out the effect in full force, except now with a metallic aftertaste. (That's the tea, steeped for a few minutes too long as I was cleaning up some dishes.)
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On an unrelated note, try out Café 668, at 885 Dundas West, for decent chinese veg food. It looks somewhat chi-chi, according to Siue, but really, it's just not dumpy. :) (It's does stand out from its surroundings though.)
Turns out that I didn't put enough chili powder, the stirfry was kinda underwhelming on the flavour side. (Except for the tofu, which I half replaced with tempeh. Yum tempeh. Tempeh is like the peanut butter version of tofu.) I didn't quite taste the peppers while eating the dish. However, now that I'm done, my mouth is tingling. It's a bit like the light stinging effect you get when you start brushing your teeth and the toothpaste gets to your gums, except without the peppermint flavour. It was starting to pass after a while, but now I'm drinking tea and it's bringing out the effect in full force, except now with a metallic aftertaste. (That's the tea, steeped for a few minutes too long as I was cleaning up some dishes.)
---
On an unrelated note, try out Café 668, at 885 Dundas West, for decent chinese veg food. It looks somewhat chi-chi, according to Siue, but really, it's just not dumpy. :) (It's does stand out from its surroundings though.)
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Your Rock Band-playing panda picture is the cutest thing ever.
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Is there really a point to anything? Who knows. Some people like them, so I guess to them they are good. I imagine they'd be better in actual Sichuan recipes and flavor profiles, but then again I didn't like them there either.
Crushing them into a powder probably upped the potency in your case.
In the future keep some sriracha or garlic chili sauce on hand for emergencies ;).
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I mean people eat them, so there must be a good way to use them. My recipe wasn't calling for them, I just added them in, so that might explain why. There were no onions in this stirfry, which is strange enough for me already. Hehe. So, I'll have to look for good veg recipes for these.
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When they are fresh they're very aromatic. Pepper is a misnomer because they are not 'hot' like peppers but it's a misnomer in Chinese too.
They are meant to be used in conjunction with dried chilis, preferably whole, preferably Sichuanese chilis which are very hard to find even in Vancouver. They look like strawberries.
The numbing of the Sichuan pepper is meant to kerb the heat of the chili pepper so that you're able to experience the flavour of the chili without your palate being overwhelmed by the spice.
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