Housemade Chinese New Year banquet for this weekend.

Hello All. I was going to contribute to our Chinese New Year celebration by making hot pot and dry chili chicken based on Fuchsia Dunlop's recipes. Lately, I've been addicted to Double Li's hot pot and love those ma la peppercorns. Was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for picking up ingredients and experiences cooking? Any good hot pot do and don't? Anything that I should make as well? Where to get some good meat drippings? Tia.

Bump..A shout out for the hot pots.

Hi,

I have a hotpot, though I have never used it. Jay K has commented twice related to hotpots:

condiments for hotpot
tofu in hotpot

I remember having hotpot with Erik M some years ago. I remember he commented at Asian groceries you can buy the assorted herbs and spices in one hotpot batches. They are usually in clear cellophane packets so you can see what assortment you are buying.

If you seek additional information via internet searches, try using keyword hotpot.

Regards,

jebo wrote:Lately, I've been addicted to Double Li's hot pot and love those ma la peppercorns.

I believe the "peppercorns" to which you refer, are called hua-jiao (ma means 'numb; and la means 'hot' and refers to the flavor produced by a combination of several ingredients). The peppercorns are not really that hot by themselves, but are frequently combined with hot chilis in Szechuan cookery. The 'peppercorns' provide the numb side of the ma la equation. In the US, the (usually ground) berries and pods are called "Szechuan Pepper", although they are not actually from a pepper plant. In actuality, they are produced by a shrub of the Rue family. Though slightly peppery, the predominant taste is a sort of citrusy anise flavor (in France and elsewhere in Europe, the berries are called Anise Pepper). Like Anise, hua-jiao partially numbs the tongue, making it possible to consume really large quantities of hot peppers. In fact, the spice is sometimes called the 'numb spice'. For several years, it was banned in the US, but it is now available again (at the Spice House for one). I'll bet the Spice house would also be a good source for other Szechwan flavorings, if you don't want to deal with going to an Asian market. If you do go to an Asian market and purchase the ground spice, rather than the whole berries, make sure it is not mixed with salt (called hua jiao yen). I made this mistake once, during the great Szechuan peppercorn famine. It was way too salty to use along with soya sauce, but made a nice rub for Chinese BBQ pork.