Chinese Food Made Easy: 100 simple, healthy recipes from easy-to-find ingredients. Ching-He Huang

       2 tablespoons groundnut oil

       2 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

       1 tablespoon freshly grated root ginger

       1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

       2 tablespoons chilli bean sauce

       400g/14oz firm fresh dofu, cut into 2.5cm/1 inch chunks

       200ml/7fl oz hot beef stock

       1 teaspoon light soy sauce

       1 tablespoon cornflour blended with 2 tablespoons cold water

       2 large spring onions, sliced

       sea salt and ground white pepper

       steamed jasmine rice to serve

      FOR THE MARINADE

       1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

       1 tablespoon light soy sauce

       1 tablespoon Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry

      1 Put all the ingredients for the marinade into a bowl and stir to combine. Add the minced meat and leave to marinate for 10 minutes.

      2 Heat a wok over a high heat. Add the minced meat and cook until browned, then transfer to a bowl and put to one side.

      3 Put the Sichuan peppercorns into a small pan and dry roast until fragrant, then remove from the heat and crush in a pestle and mortar, or place in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin. Reheat the wok and add the groundnut oil. Stir-fry half the crushed Sichuan peppercorns to release their aroma, then stir in the garlic, ginger, chilli and chilli bean sauce. Add the minced meat and dofu and stir-fry gently for 2 minutes.

      4 Add the hot stock and bring to the boil, then season to taste with the soy sauce, salt and pepper. Add the blended cornflour and stir to thicken. Stir in the spring onions. Sprinkle on the remaining crushed Sichuan peppercorns, and serve with steamed rice.

      This is a mouth-tingling numbing hotpot! The spicy soup stock base is a delicious broth in which fresh ingredients are poached – like a Chinese fondue. The Mandarin word for such a feast is ‘Huo-guo’, meaning firepot, because all the ingredients are cooked in a hotpot!

      I love this kind of feast, it is easy to prepare and great for interaction with friends. All you need is an electric wok, set up in the centre of the table, plenty of soup ladles and away you go. I had this dish in Chengdu in the middle of summer and it was fantastic. Be warned – this is extremely spicy.

      Spicy hotpot

      SERVES 4

      FOR THE SPICY SOUP STOCK BASE

       2 tablespoons groundnut oil

       3–4 long dried Sichuan chillies or long dried chillies

       50g/2oz whole Sichuan peppercorns

       1 tablespoon chilli bean sauce

       1 tablespoon chilli sauce

       1.7 litres/3 pints hot vegetable stock

       2 star anise

       6 dried Chinese mushrooms

       1 small handful of dried tangerine peel or zest of 1 orange

       250ml/9fl oz chilli oil

       2.5cm/1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled

       250g/9oz fish balls

       250g/9oz fish cake, sliced

       2 medium red chillies, deseeded and sliced

       1 small handful of Chinese cabbage/leaf, sliced 2.5cm/1 inch thick

       1 small handful of deep-fried dofu

       1 small handful of fresh dofu, cut into 2.5cm/1 inch chunks

       1 large spring onion, roughly chopped

      FOR THE POT

       1 plate each of:

       thin slices of beef, pork fillet and lamb

       raw prawns, shelled and deveined

       slices of monkfish

       fish balls

       fresh squid rings

       Chinese cabbage/leaf, shredded

       dried vermicelli mung bean noodles, pre-soaked in hot water for 5–6 minutes and drained

       fresh firm dofu, cut into chunks

       enoki mushrooms and baby corn

      VINEGAR, CHILLI AND SOY DIPPING SAUCE

       To share on the table:

       3 tablespoons Chinkiang black rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar

       3 tablespoons light soy sauce

       1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

      SPECIAL TAIWANESE DIPPING SAUCE

      To serve 1:

       1 egg yolk

       1 tablespoon oriental satay/barbeque sauce

       1 tablespoon light soy sauce

       1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander

       1 tablespoon finely sliced spring onion

      1 First make the spicy soup stock base. Heat a 2 litre/31/2 pint capacity wok over a high heat and add the groundnut oil. Add the chillies and Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fry until fragrant.

      2 Add the chilli bean sauce and chilli sauce and then pour in the stock. Add the star anise, dried mushrooms, tangerine peel or orange zest, chilli oil and ginger and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low-medium and simmer for 20 minutes.

      3 Ten minutes before serving, add the remaining spicy soup stock base ingredients.

      4 Whilst the stock is simmering, place all the ingredients for the pot on serving plates, cover with clingfilm and put into the fridge. To make the vinegar, chilli and soy dipping sauce combine all the ingredients and put to one side.

      5 To serve, arrange all the ingredients on the table. Transfer the soup base to an electric wok and set it up in the centre of the table. Let guests help themselves and cook the ingredients in the spicy broth. Let each guest prepare their own Taiwanese