So happy to hear that, Suzanne! Glad the tips helped. Enjoy experimenting!

Thank you for your lovely comment! I’m so glad you found the tutorial informative—it’s amazing how much there is to learn about such a magical ingredient.

Yes Ruby, you can surely use green, unripe Sichuan pepper. You can use it for Sichuan Boiled Fish, Sichuan Boiled Beef, etc. It’s also great for making Sichuan pepper infused oil. BTW, in Chinese, they’re usually called 鲜花椒 or 青花椒 (青椒 refers to green chili pepper or green bell pepper). Hope this helps!

Teresa, thanks for that. MacOS gives me the option to long-click on a word for a definition, and in this case it gave me one for that spice. Apparently it’s closely related to the spice discussed, so is probably a great substitute. The natural world is full of so many things, and so diverse, that it always amazes me when I dig into it. (And it’s a serious hobby of mine) By the way, Indonesia, and especially its island of Borneo has some of the biggest number of species in the world, some yet undiscovered, and all of which are currently threatened by increasing deforestation in recent years. Preserving places like Borneo means preserving life, medicine and cuisine.

When using ground Sichuan pepper, it becomes part of the sauce/dressing therefore you consume it normally. Whole Sichuan pepper lends flavor to dishes but it’s not supposed to be eaten as it can be overpowering and the texture can be gritty. Usually, you either avoid picking up Sichuan peppercorn with chopsticks or remove it with chopsticks before you consume the key ingredients of the dish. Hope this is clear.