Not Szechuan Chicken (by G)

I had a barbecued chicken carcass in the fridge that required eating so I spent some time today thinking about what to do with it. I remembered I also had some Szechuan peppercorns at home so I decided on barbecued Szechuan chicken.

Unfortunately, when I got home, the peppercorns eluded me. Turns out you can make a pretty close approximation of Szechuan pepper by blending white pepper, cardamom seeds and star anise.

I stripped the chicken carcass of all the meat then chopped it up (the meat that is) and fried it with some red capsicum, steamed carrot slices, spring onion and Chinese sausage - then I added a healthy dose of my pepper substitute, a sauce of white vinegar, sugar, chilli sauce, Chinese cooking wine and soy sauce. To finish I stirred through some thin noodles and corn flour slurry to thicken then topped with some spring onion greens that I had sliced thinly and soaked in cold water.

I really enjoyed this dinner - very savoury and spicy... though I do pity Biggs, she doesn't handle the heat so well.