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| Zanthoxylum flower |
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| Sichuan pepper branch with fruits |
Sichuan pepperas well, for simplicity) is also known in parts of India, the whole Himalaya region, and in selected spots in South East Asia. Its usage has, however, not spread to the most of South East Asia.
In China, the spice Sichuan pepper
(jiao)
is obtained from several local
species of Zanthoxylum, and therefore the quality of the spice
varies regionally. Although it is often claimed that Z.
piperitum is the canonical source of Sichuan pepper, it appears that
actually Z. bungeanum, Z. simulans,
Z. planispinum and Z. armatum are most
commonly used. According to reports from the field of Traditional Chinese
Medicine, Z. bungeanum is the most valued of these, and the
others are considered as inferior substitutes.
Chinese Sichuan pepper is part of the five spice powder (see star anise). It is most characteristic of, but not
restricted to, the cooking style of Sichuan, a cool highland province in
Central China. For examples of the usage of Sichuan pepper in Sichuan-style
Chinese cooking, see orange (on the beef stew
au larm) and sesame (on the
spicy bean cheese food mapo doufu [麻婆豆腐]);
see also cassia on the pan-Chinese
master sauce cooking technique.
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| Ripe Sichuan pepper fruits |
The characteristic biting
or numbing taste of Sichuan pepper makes it an
indispensable spice for Sichuan cookery; if it is omitted or substituted by
black pepper or chiles
alone, the foods would appear flat or lifeless to any true Chinese
connoisseur. In Chinese culinary theory, this type of pungency is important
enough to get its own name (ma [麻]),
to have a clear distinction to the type of heat provided by other hot spices
(which is named la [辣]). To increase the
ma-ness of food at the table, Sichuan pepper is often used as
a condiment; a chile-laden Sichuan stew covered
with a thick layer of freshly ground Sichuan pepper is indeed a food one
does not forget easily. The two types of hotness
very well complement
each other (ma la [麻辣] hot-and-numbing
).
Combination of chiles fire and
tickling ma is typical for Sichuan cooking; yet similar
creations are, in a lesser degree, found, e.g., in Brazil and Indonesia,
where paracress takes up the part of Sichuan
pepper.
Many Chinese foods, especially such originating from Sichuan, have an
intensive ma-la flavour. Apart from the former mentioned
mapo doufu, one cound mention a Sichuan version of beef stew,
water-cooked beef
shui zhu niu rou [水煮牛肉].
The dish draws its extreme pungency from a combination of
chile-bean-paste (doubanjiang),
chiles browned in hot oil, and Sichuan pepper
that has undergone the same procedure. Stock is added to yield a fiery
liquid that is used to rapidly cook vegetables and thinly sliced beef (sometimes pork).
On serving, the whole dish is topped with crushed chiles and Sichuan pepper.
In Chinese cooking, Sichuan pepper is often used in the form of flavoured salt
(jiao yan [椒盐, 椒鹽] or
hua jiao yan [花椒盐, 花椒鹽]).
To prepare this typical Sichuan flavouring, coarse salt and dried Sichuan
pepper are toasted together until some smoke evolves; after cooling,
both are ground together to coarse powder. This peppered salt
is a common
table condiment in China. Occasionally, flavoured salt also
prepared from black pepper instead of Sichuan
pepper (hu jiao yan [胡椒盐]).
A similar usage is found in Japan, where the spice (sansho, sanshō, sanshou [山椒]) is produced from the species Z. piperitum: The popular condiment shichimi tōgarashi [七味 唐辛子, しちみ とうがらし] is composed of hot red chiles, Sichuan pepper, tangerine or orange peel and smaller amounts of black and white sesame seed, poppy seed and sea weed (nori [海苔, のり]). All components are ground together to a coarse texture. Shichimi tōgarashi is mainly a table condiment which is sprinkled over noodle soups and hotpots.
The Japanese variant of Sichuan pepper is
also used to flavour meats fried on a hot plate
(teppanyaki [鉄板焼き, てっぱんやき]);
unfortunately, it is often substituted by the cheaper
white pepper, particularly outside of Japan.
Japanese Sichuan pepper is mostly traded ground, and it has both a fresh,
pleasant lime fragrance and a well-developed
pungency.
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Korean cuisine is probably the only in the world that utilizes two different Zanthoxylum species. Chopi [초피] is exactly the same species as Japanese sansho and very similar to Chinese jiao; it is used for a wide variety of foods (meat, fish, vegetables), sometimes even for kim chi (see chile). On the other hand, sancho [산초] derives from the related species Z. schinifolium and is a uniquely Korean flavouring wholly distinct from Japanese sansho; is has a mild, aromatic flavour somewhat in between of Thai horapha basil and star anise. The ground seeds often flavour pickles and hot sauces.
In Western and South Western India, cooks sometimes use another relative of Sichuan pepper with slightly larger capsules (Z. rhetsa = Z. limonella); it is called tirphal [तिरफळ] in Marathi and triphala [ત્રિફળા] in Gujarati. Usage of that otherwithe unknown spice is mostly restricted to India’s West coast (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka), where it is used for fish dishes. Contrasting the conventional Indian cooking habits, it is normally not combined with other spices since its flavour is considered delicate and gets easily lost among other spices. Chinese Sichuan pepper is a fully satisfying substitute.
In Nepali cooking, a local species of Sichuan pepper (Z. armatum = Z. alatum) is used as a spice. The dark, almost black, capsules are significantly more pungent than the Chinese ones; their scent is very strong, almost pervasive, and very spicy; it reminds more of rose and cassia than to lemon, although it lacks any sweet quality. Nepali Sichuan pepper is used for curries and pickles; it’s one of the most frequently used spices in the cuisine of Nepal.
The same type of Sichuan pepper Sichuan pepper is one of the few spices important in the cuisines of the Sino-Tibetic Himalayan peoples, for example in Tibetan and Bhutani cookery. Because of the unique climate, few spices can be grown in Tibet; instead, flavourings of animal origin are used, especially various types of cheese. The national dish of Tibet and Nepal is a kind of stuffed pasta called momo [मोःमोः, མོག་མོག་]. The most popular version of this dish, sha momo [ཤ་མོག་མོག་], uses a stuffing of ground meat (typically, mutton or yak) flavoured with Sichuan pepper, garlic, ginger and onion. The noodles are traditionally simmered in yak broth, but today more often steamed due to Chinese influence. They are served dry, often topped with chopped chives, and together with either garlic water or a fiery chile sauce. Sometimes, they are fried after steaming. Particularly among the Tibetan diaspora in India, vegetarian momo stuffed with cheese, potatoes oder green vegetables have become popular.
Tibetan cooking also makes use of the combination of chiles with
Sichuan pepper, quite obviously a culinary loan of mala foods from China; after all, Tibet borders the
fiery
Sichuan province, and today that province also houses a significant number
of Tibetan families. The spicy noodle soup malaphing [མ་ལ་ཕིང་]
could also be served in a Sichuan restaurant: Cabbage leaves and flat noodles are cooked in
a quite salty broth augmented with soy sauce, which is remarkably close to the liquid
used for the water-boiled beef
; on serving, it is flavoured with chile paste,
crushed garlic, dark sesame
oil and ground Sichuan pepper.
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| Twig of the Indonesian relative of Sichuan pepper, Z. acanthopodium |
Yet another type of Sichuan pepper grows wild on the Indonesian island
Sumatra, where it is used as a spice by a few ethnic groups. In Indonesian
cookbooks, this spice is sometimes termed Indonesian lemon pepper
, which
must not be confused with the lemon-flavoured
black pepper found in Western supermarkets.
The spice, in Indonesia known as andaliman, is less pungent
than other types of Sichuan pepper and has a more intensive
lime fragrance, similar to the Japanese species.
It could perhaps be substituted
by a mixture of Chinese or Japanese Sichuan pepper plus some fresh
lemon grass or better lemon
myrtle leaves.
Indonesian Sichuan pepper is most characteristic for the cuisine of the Batak, a formerly animistic and now Christian people inhabiting a small area in the Northern part of Sumatra. Batak food is quite hot and spicy, e.g., sangsang, bits of pork meat and viscera stewed in a thick, spicy sauce containing pig’s blood. See also lemon grass for Indonesian cookery in general.
On Indonesia’s main island, Jawa, there is another local type of Sichuan pepper in culinary use: Z. avicennae, also known as karangeang in Western Jawa. According to my sparse literature, the leaves have a coriander flavour, and the fruits remind of anise.
Sichuan pepper cannot really be called fiery
, but it has an unusual
tickling
pungency, which
gives way to a characteristic numb
sensation (ma in
Chinese). Thus, Sichuan pepper cannot be used to prepare hot
food.
The only other spices with a similar anaesthetic power are Tasmanian pepper, which additionally can provide true
peppery heat, paracress, and, to a lesser extent,
water pepper
leaves. Water pepper seeds have a much increased pungency, and it is remarkable
that this spice is not used traditionally in the cooking of any country, despite
its easy availability and large distribution in Eurasia.
See also negro pepper for a more detailed
discussion of hot spices.
Import of Sichuan pepper to the USA was
banned in recent years in order to prevent
spread of the citrus canker disease. Citrus canker is caused by a
bacterium (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri)
that infects several members of family Rutaceae,
particularly citrus fruits; being highly contagious and impossible to cure,
citrus canker now poses a severe threat to the orange industry in Florida.
For fear of importing new strains of the pathogen, the
Food & Drug Administration (FDA) had set a general ban on
several herbal products, including Chinese Sichuan pepper. The ban was
lifted in 2005 for Sichuan pepper that had been heat-treated in order
to kill any bacteria present. Since then, lovers of Chinese food in
the USA do no longer rely on smuggled spices.
