Chinese Peppercorn Unbanned

The first Chinese food I can recall eating was with my best friend, Nancy. On paydays (I was selling Lincoln Mercury automobiles  bruising my hips as I ran into the fins of these handsome, late 1950s vehicles  on the showroom floor) we would trot over to Broadway  near Times Square to a scruffy little restaurant and sit next to the steamed-up plate glass window, eating glossy Cantonese dishes like shrimp and greens in a mild cornstarch sauce with sticky rice and hot tea.

Fabulous.

But in the late ’60s, Western Chinese restaurants opened here, introducing us to the wild side of Chinese food: hot, spicy and fat dishes from Szechwan province.

Timidly, I began cooking dishes from  “The Good Food of Szechwan,” by a fellow with the unlikely name of Robert A. Delfs. I made twice-cooked pork: Boiled, fatty slabs of meat, sliced and stir-fried with heaps of dried chili peppers, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and, wonder of wonders, Szechwan peppercorns. I made fried eggplant and shredded chicken, and (my only dismal failure) Yu-xiang Zhu-gan — pork liver, a dish with all the  Szechwan seasonings plus a new ingredient: wood ear. Our sons rebelled. So did my mate.  I ate every bit, of course, to demonstrate the error of their ways. 

Now the distinctive, odd, peppercorn-like seasoning is not a peppercorn at all, I am told, but a kind of citrus from China which the U.S. government banned some time ago to protect California orange groves from disease. A sanitized peppercorn was substituted, a less fiery seasoning, alas, that failed to paint your mouth with heat and the taste of silver. 

I continued to cook Szechwan dishes anyway, though they lacked the twang and zeal of the undoctored original. Now, I am delighted to find, the real Szechwan peppercorn is back on the market and is cheap and easily available online. Try it. You’ll like it.

Since many Szechwan dishes are fiery and oily, they are well suited to wintertime. There are, however relatively more delicate dishes such as Vinegar-Splashed Chicken from “The Key to Chinese Cooking” by Irene Kuo  which is lovely in warmer weather.

Both “The Key to Chinese Cooking” by Irene Kuo, and “The Good Food of Szechwan” by Robert A. Delfs are available at Amazon and elsewhere on line. 

And Szechwan peppercorns are easy to find online or in Asian markets.

Vinegar-Splashed Chicken

Ingredients

2 pounds of boneless chicken breast cut into mouthful-sized pieces

Marinade

2 tablespoons 
dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon
light soy sauce

1 tablespoon
dry sherry

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Szechwan peppercorns roasted in a dry pan until fragrant (3 to 5 minutes) and then crushed to a rough powder.

Preparation

Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes

In the meantime, chop a tablespoon of fresh ginger, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 scallions and mix together with 1 teaspoon sesame oil (the dark Asian kind). Stir fry the minced garlic, ginger and scallions in 3 tablespoons peanut oil at high heat briefly in a wok. Add the chicken and marinade and when glossy, add a tablespoon or two of Chenkong or red wine vinegar, mix briefly at high heat and serve right away. Good with jasmine rice.