OK, by now, you’re probably thinking, “enough travel photos already, Stormy! Let’s get back to the food.”
Well, I have a recipe for you. It’s not my own. But it is pretty delicious and inspired by the Sichuan peppers I ran across in China.
Sichuan peppers, if you haven’t had them, are an interesting experience. I won’t say flavor, simply because that is too simple a word for what you feel when you bite into one of the delicate pepper husks.
Initially, your taste buds struggle to identify what they are tasting. Tangy like green cardamom and lime, but peppery, as well, Sichuan pepper has a flavor all its own. A light chew results in a stronger burst of flavor and an unexpected numbing of the area of your mouth immediately surrounding the peppercorn.
Eat too much of it and your mouth is overwhelmed by the pungent taste and tingle; no other foods can compete until the sensation dies away and your mouth regains its composure.
Before we knew its name, we took to calling it “numb tongue.” It turns out that the Chinese have a very similar nick name for it.
What exactly is Sichuan Pepper?
Sichuan pepper (also called Szechuan pepper) isn’t spicy and it isn’t pepper. It is related to the citrus family – possibly the reason behind its unusual flavor. The husk – which looks like a reddish flower – is what is eaten, not the bitter seed, which is removed. And, in its ground form, it is one of the five ingredients in Chinese five-spice powder, which adds sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty flavors to a dish.
Toasting it brings out the essential oils and heightens the flavor.
Adding it to dishes in whole form at the last minute preserves its taste, making it shine as a core ingredient. Grinding it mellows out the numbing effect.
Blending it with one or more of these other ingredients is delicious: ginger, star anise, black pepper, nutmeg, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, and chilies.
You may be able to find Sichuan peppercorns at a local Asian market, but Chowhounds suggest that for the highest quality, you should purchase them online from Penzey’s.
Beyond the Great Wall: Recipe and Travels in The Other China
The only Chinese cookbook with loads of pictures (which is how I prefer cookbooks) at my local library was called Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China
The book – part travelogue, part recipe and food – is filled with recipes from an array of China’s ethnic minorities from along the Silk Road, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and other areas in the far reaches of China. And, it includes numerous recipes that use Sichuan peppercorns.
The recipe I chose to try? A simple spice-rubbed roast pork with just 6 ingredients. I doubled the recipe and it took twice as long to cook, but it was worth the wait. The flavors are rich and the spiced pork tasted best right out of the oven, unlike many dishes that taste better the next day.
Sichuan peppers are so unusual, I’m not sure there is a substitute that would replicate the flavor well. That said, you could try a little ground green cardamom and white or black pepper in this dish to add some tanginess.
Here goes:
Lisu Spice-Rubbed Roast Pork
- 2 Tbsp lard or bacon grease
- 1.5 pounds boneless pork butt or loin
- 2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (ground and bottled works fine)
- 1½ tsp pan-toasted Sichuan peppercorns
- ½ tsp black pepper, freshly ground
- 1 tsp salt
- Pan toast the Sichuan pepper to heighten their flavor. Pan toasting the Sichuan peppercorns also brings out the essential oils.
- Place toasted, whole Sichuan peppercorns, ground nutmeg and black pepper (preferably fresh-ground), and salt into a mortar, spice mill, or food processor.
- Grind spices together to create your rub.
- Break out your bacon grease or lard to help add fat back into a well-trimmed roast. Place roasting pan in oven at 350 and add 2 Tbsp of the fat to the pan to melt it.
- Rinse and pat the roast dry. Using your fingers, rub the spice blend evenly over the roast.
- Place pork roast into hot roast pan. Spoon some of the melted fat over the top and coat the roast evenly.
- Return pan to oven and cook until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F (~50 min for 1.5 pounds; add time for larger cuts), periodically basting the roast with the fat.
- When done, remove pork roast from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
First, I’ll never get tired of your travel photos Stormy! And second, that is so interesting…really, citrus? I will be sure to try some Sichuan soon. I actually just went to my spice cabinet to look at my container of five spice, and sure enough – it contains Szechuan pepper. But I’m not sure if I should feel ripped off or like I got a bonus because my jar of five spice contains seven spices!?! Anise star, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, Szechuan and nutmeg.
Thank you, Patty – I really appreciate that! And, yes, the flavor is really unusual. Some of the dishes we ate in China included it whole, and when we bit into it the first time or two, it totally undid us. On this pork, it is really delicious and you get a better sense of the flavor because the numbing sensation isn’t as strong. As far as 5-spice goes, I’ve heard that 7 is actually more common these days (probably using extra spices that are more affordable?). However many spices make it into the blend, the intent is to bring out five flavors – sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty – on your taste buds. Thanks for including this recipe as part of Chowstalker’s Whole30 support this month!
Something I found out recently was that all Sichuan pepper imported into the US must first undergo a heating process which eradicates a certain citrus canker virus that affects our orange groves. This heating somewhat diminishes the intensity of the pepper. So if you’re a purist of Sichuan cuisine like I am, you try to smuggle in some dried, yet unprocessed, specimens to maximize the “ma la” flavor.
Hi Mike, thanks for the information – I did not know that, but it makes sense that they would do that and that the flavor would be affected. I think, unfortunately, this is probably true in many cases – food always tastes better where it’s from, isn’t it? : )