Sichuan pepper

There is a Sichuanese dish that I love. This is shousi baokai, hand-shredded Chinese cabbage then pan-fried. My favorite is that Belleville MandarinIn Paris, a canteen run by a couple from Zhejiang, Bailey and Bailey… where you grew up, Handa.

Fried cabbage sounds silly on paper… and yet, there’s the crunch of the vegetable, its enveloping sauce, the heat of the chili. And above all a little purple berry spiciness that suddenly wakes you up and whets your appetite for what’s to come.

This berry, which makes up the whole dish, is the Sichuan pepper, which is well-known in Sichuan cuisine. So much so that it was given the name of the region in the West while in China it is called HUA JIAO (花椒) “flower pepper”.

If you have never tasted this pepper, I have to describe the sensation to you. When you bite into it, your whole body speaks. First, the Sichuan pepper warms you up like a chili pepper, then it tingles and cools down a bit before numbing the tongue slightly… a bit like pink pepper.

In 2013, Neuroscience researchers at University College London The sensation of anesthesia caused by Sichuan pepper compares to a 50 Hz electrical discharge, much less than what you get by sticking your fingers in a socket… but still. This effect is due to alpha hydroxy acids, one of the ingredients in Sichuan pepper that disrupts touch receptors and vibrates the tongue and lips instead.

The tongue hurts for a while, then the Sichuan pepper leaves a lemony taste in the mouth. Not surprising since this small berry comes from the Rutaceae family like citrus fruits and not from the Piperaceae like all other peppers. So we are talking about fake peppers.

This bay is special. Already, only by eye. She looks like a little Pacman swallowing everything in her path. The image comes from your hand and speaks for itself.

Because in fact, it is not the Sichuan seed that we eat – the kernel is hard and bitter – but its shell. In the fall, when the berries reach maturity, they spontaneously open and allow the seeds to emerge.

We can see this phenomenon in China and France… where we are also familiar with this culture. Sichuan pepper came to Europe very early in the early 13th century… through the most famous Venetian merchant and navigator Marco Polo. He had a brief moment of glory, then other Marines stole the show.

It reappeared in our kitchens, but especially in our gardens in the 19th century… thanks to passionate botanists. Unlike pepper plants, which are delicately grown vines, false peppers come from very hardy shrubs that withstand both heat and extreme cold.

There are many Sichuan peppers in front of you:
Sichuan pepper brought by Handa

Green Sichuan pepper and red Sichuan pepper grown by Marine Riviere from the Petite Riviere Plantation in the Cotentin…

More and more market gardeners plant them in France, in Gers, in Lot et Garonne, in Maine-et-Loire…

And this last berry is actually a timut pepper. It is made by Robin Torte of Savers du Marceau, located near Angers.

Because Sichuan pepper isn’t the only one in the family Zanthoxylum, fake pepper He has several cousins: Timut Pepper (Xanthoxylum armatum), with fresh grapefruit flavors from Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. And which is the same species as green Sichuan pepper!

Japanese sansho pepper (Xanthoxylum pipritum) Reminiscent of lemongrass,

Korean Sansho Pepper (Xanthoxylum schinifolium) Or the Andaliman bay that grows in Indonesia (Xanthoxylum acanthopodium) Close to lemon and tangerine.

To cook this fake pepper, you can take it from the entire repertoire of Chinese cuisine or use it as a dessert… for example Sichuan pepper goes very well with chocolate. Here, I mixed it with cold olive oil and poured it over a simple chocolate mousse, a recipe of my mother’s, a well-kept secret… which I will share with you on the ‘Emissions’ website.

Chocolate mousse and Sichuan pepper infused oil

• 200 grams of dark chocolate
• 5 eggs
• 30 grams of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 10 cl olive oil
• 10 Sichuan pepper berries

Break up the dark chocolate bar and melt it in the bain-marie.

Meanwhile, separate the whites from the yolks. Beat the yolk with sugar until it turns white. Add the melted chocolate to the yolks and mix well. Make sure the chocolate is not too hot as this can cook the egg yolks.

In another salad bowl or mixing bowl, beat the whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.

Gradually add the egg whites to the egg yolk and chocolate mixture. Incorporate ⅓ by ⅓ of the mixture with a spatula. First vigorously and always in the same direction for the first third then slowly for the remaining two thirds so as not to foam.

Once the mixture is well incorporated, refrigerate overnight.

In a jam pot, pour olive oil, add Sichuan pepper and infuse overnight at room temperature.

Serve the chocolate mousse with a small spoonful of Szechuan pepper oil.