In article >,
"Bob Terwilliger" > wrote:

> Saudades (FG) wrote:
>
> > must be. only good Sichuan 'peppercorns' can give you that licking a 9V
> > battery feeling [as quality varies]. it's not the peppercorns we all
> > know. google for a photo or i could make one for you.
> >
> > shortly before going to Sichuan i did give this LKK sauce a go so i could
> > compare it with the real thing. then i ate only Sichuan food for 8 days
> > straight, including Ma Po tofu on 3 different occasions, and found out LKK
> > sauce hardly tasted like the real thing [i find LKK too salty]. and you
> > know what else, in Sichuan they throw in a handful of the pepercorns
> > [there's already loads of it in powder form in the sauce] in just about
> > every dish. i tried to eat as many peppercorns as i could...it's a
> > wonderfully perculiar feeling ...so nice i brought home a kilo by
> > various brands!
>
> I make an infused oil rather than putting in the peppercorns. One
> off-putting thing about putting them in is the stone-like seed, which gives
> a horribly gritty texture to anything in which they're put. How do you get
> around that?

Crack the pods open and remove the black kernels. The amount you use in
a typical dish isn't large enough for that to be much of a problem.

After I de-kernel them, I crush them in using a mortar and pestle, and
then spread them in a hot, dry iron skillet until they begin to smoke
*slightly*.

Isaac