Sichuan Peppercorns

Also called fagara, wild pepper, Chinese pepper and anise pepper, Sichuan peppercorns are an ancient spice known throughout China as ‘flower peppers’ because they look like flower buds opening. Used originally and extensively in Sichuan cooking (hence their popular name), they are enjoyed in other parts of China as well. Their reddish-brown, rusty colour and strong, pungent odour distinguish them from the hotter black peppercorns, with which they may be used interchangeably. Not related to peppers at all, they are the dried berries of a shrub that is a member of the prickly ash family known as ‘fagara’. Their smell reminds me of lavender; their taste is sharp and slightly numbing to the tongue, with a clean, lemon-like, woody spiciness and fragrance. It is not the peppercorns that make Sichuan cooking so hot but, rather, the chilli pepper. Sichuan peppercorns are one of the components of five-spice powder. They can be ground in a conventional peppermill, but should be roasted (see below) beforehand to bring out their full flavour.