Sichuan home cooking for every heat
One pot.
Every heat.
Tonight: wontons. One gentle pot, four bowls, each one finished at the table, from clear soup to red oil.
- 2TSPchili oil with sediment
- 1/4TSPground huajiao
待试Draft ratio
- the chili oil or crisp you already own
- ground roasted huajiao
- black vinegar
- scallion
麻 numbing is set separately for each seat on the table planner.
红油抄手 hóngyóu chāoshǒu red-oil wontons
郫县豆瓣
- 郫Píthe old county's name
- 县xiàncounty
- 豆瓣dòubànbroad-bean paste
Píxiàn dòubàn · Pixian chili bean paste
Pantry decoder
Can you find this jar?
Doubanjiang is the fermented chili bean paste behind mapo tofu. In the aisle, three things on the label tell you what you need.
- 1
郫县豆瓣 in the name.
- 2
辣椒 làjiāo, chili and 蚕豆 cándòu, broad bean near the top of 配料 pèiliào, ingredients.
- 3
Typically contains wheat flour, so check the allergen line.
Labels vary by brand, so we say “typically”. Every pantry guide answers the question first, then goes deep: swaps, ratios, salt, and when not to substitute.
How it works
Cook it once.
Finish it at the table.
The pot carries the fragrance, not the fire, so nobody at the table gets cooked out of dinner. Cook for whoever wants the least, then let everyone add their own, bowl by bowl.
-
1煮zhǔ · cook
Cook it gentle
Make the whole pot with no chili and no numbing: wontons, broth, the fragrance of the dish. It is already dinner for anyone who wants 不辣.
-
- 红油hóngyóuchili oil or crisp, the jar you own
- 花椒面huājiāo miànground roasted huajiao
- 香醋xiāngcùblack vinegar
- 葱花cōnghuāscallion
2摆bǎi · set out
Set the tray
Put out what is already in your kitchen. No new jars tonight. Homemade red oil is an upgrade, not the price of entry: refrigerate it and use it within 4 days, or freeze it.
3调tiáo · season
Finish every bowl
Each person spoons in their own heat, using the words Sichuan restaurants use when you order. 麻, the numbing, comes along in pips.
待试Draft amounts. They become final when we have cooked the house ladder at our table and logged the date.
-
不辣bù làNo heat
不麻
The bowl as the pot made it: black vinegar + scallion.
-
微辣wēi làA little heat
微麻
1 tsp chili oil, oil only · 1/8 tsp ground huajiao
-
中辣zhōng làMedium heat
中麻
2 tsp chili oil with sediment · 1/4 tsp ground huajiao
-
特辣tè làExtra hot
特麻
1 tbsp chili oil with sediment + 1/2 tsp chili flakes · 1/2 tsp ground huajiao
For dishes whose heat is a finish, the heat lives in the bowl. When it's cooked into the base, we print the floor.
How the heat ladder worksKitchen log · 试
On the stove next
A recipe gets the 已试 seal only after we have cooked it at our own table and logged the date. Here is what's queued.
- The house heat ladder (wontons, four bowls) 红油抄手 / 清汤抄手 on the stove next
- Sichuan chili oil, made small 红油 on the stove next
- Tomato and egg stir-fry 西红柿炒鸡蛋 on the stove next
- Smashed cucumber 拍黄瓜 on the stove next
- Dan dan noodles 担担面 on the stove next
Nothing is marked cooked until we have made it at our own table and logged it.
The shelf · 铺
Printables for a working kitchen
Nothing here is on sale yet. Each one goes on sale only after it passes its own check: a print test, a fluent Chinese review, or a real hot pot night.
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Pantry Labels
Bilingual labels for what you actually decant (spices, chilies, starches, dry goods), plus dated labels for anything homemade.
$9未上架 Not on sale yet
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Pour Until I Say Stop
Family Recipe Keeping Kit
Interview prompts, a watch-and-weigh method and bilingual cards (Simplified Chinese) for writing down the dishes nobody wrote down.
$16未上架 Not on sale yet
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Hot Pot at Home
Split-Pot Planner
A split-pot night planned out: a gentle side, a mala side, a six-sauce bar, one shopping list, and the stove safety rules on the page.
$16未上架 Not on sale yet · planned
The book, One Pot, Every Heat. About thirty weeknight Sichuan dishes, each with a heat ladder. We will write it once enough people ask and once the dishes are cooked. See the plan.
In season · 涮
Hot pot at home, split down the middle
The split pot (鸳鸯锅) is the every-heat pot: a gentle broth on one side and mala on the other. Here is the setup, what goes in, and how to run a tabletop burner safely.
