Sichuan pepper primer

I  noted last week that I cooked with Sichuan (or Szechuan) pepper for the first time, and I liked the result.

I didn't mention, though, that there was an issue with the pepper being gritty, which I assumed was the result of my not having ground the roasted pepper hard enough.

However, on further investigation, apparently you're supposed to remove the hard inner seed completely, as it will never be ground far enough to not feel "gritty" in the cooking.  Despite initial appearances, these are not similar to peppercorns in any way, and you only use the (pretty light weight) outer shell, even though this seems like a pretty fiddly job when you have a packet of whole Sichuan pepper.   

Learn something new every day.