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I'm curious if it is from the Sichuan peppercorns.

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Welcome user3338. Please review our FAQ: cooking.stackexchange.com/faq. Recipe requests, which this read an awful lot like, are off-topic and likely to be closed. I suggest you find a recipe and then if you have questions about how to fix, adapt, or improve it you can ask a question here for help. To find a recipe, Google might provide you a good jumping off point: google.com/search?q=szechuan+hot+pot+recipe+sichuan+pepper. Sources also say the book "Land of Plenty" by Fuchsia Dunlop will help you. – justkt Nov 12 '10 at 15:00
I agree with @justkt that this is likely to be closed. The only advice I'd give is that you want to only use the husks of the pepper corns and discard the seeds for the mouth numbing experience. See this question – Sam Holder Nov 12 '10 at 21:15
Agree with both above. Please be more specific as I can suggest you some technique when you cook. The beet place to look for recipe on google. – Foodrules Nov 13 '10 at 5:13

1 Answer

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Depending where you live it can be hard to get hold of useful Szechuan pepper. What you want is just the outer shell of fruit, not the contents

Many governments force importers from China to use high heat to sterilise these on import, and most of the active ingredients seems to get whacked during this process

Find the most "Chinese" shop you can, and buy packets that look like they where sealed in China (No local language print or contact detail, only Chinese characters). These hopefully haven't been heat treated and will still be good. Keep it airtight until needed

Sometimes it's labelled "Red Prickly Ash" or "Prickly Ash", or look for this on the label 花椒

To use, lightly dry roast the whole shells and grind into a powder. Then measure the fresh ground powder to match the recipe. It is only a subtle effect compared to Kava or Kawakawa and I think it needs lots of chilli too taste great

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