Green mabo tofu with fresh sansho peppercorns

A green seasonal variation of the Chinese classic tofu dish.

Sansho is the main flavor. It is the Japanese Sichuan pepper. The plant is very similar but used differently from the standard Chinese cuisine. I mean I have seen them gather green sansho and cook it in the South of China, but over the world other places only the dry mature (pink) Sichuan peppercorns are known. So this recipe might be close to the original version. More about it :

Sansho, la saveur boisee de la cuisine japonaise. (The wood flavor in Japanese cuisine.)

The sauce, longly simmered is made of the classic onion, garlic, ginger trio, then chicken and soy sauce.

Negi leeks and more sansho peppercorn for the green finishing.

A great meal. What can I tell ?
The taste of sansho is distinctive. Next time you pass in an Asian grocery get a small bin of powdered dry sansho. You can try the lemony flavor. But the raw green version has so much more. It’s slightly bitter, it sparkles he tongue like mini-nettles. Special.

I was talking with a reader of this blog, that has eaten a few of my dishes, and of course knows most ingrediens. She liked many photos presenting food we only have in Osaka, to people over the word. Macro shots show lots of details, the shapes, colors. I can tell you the process of recipe. “But people don’t know the taste as they can’t eat any.”.

I know.

It’s sad, but often, you guys don’t know how delicious it is. And if that was bad, and only looking good, you couldn’t detect the scam… Well, I post only dishes that my tastebuds like, nothing objectively bad. Still not everything is for every mouth.

What can be done ?