I ask bc the one time I had my mind set on making my own, I asked a customer at one of our Asian markets what I would need to get. She laughed and said she uses the premade sauces, of which there is an abundance available.
I find those work really well with the ground meat (or shrooms/fermented pickled mustard greens if ya wanna keep it vegetarian) of one’s choice 
I think I posted a lamb version somewhere in this thread.
Its a pretty easy sauce if you have the spicy chili sauce. I buy ground pork meant for stuffing at the local butcher.
Agreed. I make my own as well (with minced mushrooms instead of pork).
I have all manners of spicy sauces, many of them of Sichuan provenance. I don’t think I have the là dòuban jiàng, unless it’s somewhere in the basement.
This looks like a promising recipe:
This is the recipe I use, as well as one if a fuschia dunlop book. I’ve also done the vegan version with oyster mushrooms that is in the Ottolenghi COMFORT book.
I made Fuchsia Dunlop’s Dan Dan noodles, but meatless, swapping in a mix of fresh and dried shiitakes, along with chopped zha cai in place of the usual preserved vegetable. We liked this a lot and didn’t really miss the beef!
Anyone familiar with using green Sichuan peppercorn at home?
I just picked up some oil, reading that it was fresher-tasting and more numbing than red.
I’ve come across the green in restaurants mostly with fish, but apparently this should be good with some of the salads I’ve been experimenting with.
Mapo tofu with mushroom
Hot & sour eggplant
These are two old friends, and it was good to see them again!
The NYT recipe for dan dan noodz.
looks good!
SICHUAN DRY POT
Lamb shoulder marinated with a mix of flavors, sliced potatoes and bamboo shoots, chunks of onion, sliced scallions. Lots of cumin, garlic, and chilli flakes to flavor everything, vinegar and a pinch of sugar to balance, and finished with the new green sichuan peppercorn oil off heat. Missed the cilantro, which went bad
Lovely and tingly. Ate blanched green beans / haricots vert on the side instead of adding them in.
It looks like Hot and Sour Soup is another dish that is also often associated with Sichuan food, but originated elsewhere.
from Wiki
I’m making Hot and Sour Soup tonight.
Made smacked cukes yesterday very loosely following the WoL recipe, with the addition of Sichuan chili oil, ground chile peppers, and toasted & ground Sichuan peppercorns.
Did not suck, but now I have odem that could kill 
I don’t know what this is.
Sorry, Old German word for breath. I thought it might be known in English as well, since there’s some overlap between Old German and Old English.
I made mapo tofu last week and completely forgot to post about it - weird, since I made a huge batch and ended up eating it basically every day for lunch for a week! Fortunately it’s one of my faves. I use this doubanjiang in my sauce:
The rest of the sauce ingredients are soy sauce, chicken stock, ginger and garlic, a healthy hit of sambal oelek for additional heat, a handful of douchi (fermented black beans) for extra funk, and plenty of sichuan peppercorns. Thicken with cornstarch. Drizzle of chili oil and/or sesame oil on top.
I prefer it with lots of leeks in addition to meat and tofu, but I’ve made it with various combinations of alliums - a finely chopped onion plus some scallions to garnish is a nice substitute for leeks.
Yes, I LOVE a lot of leeks in my mapo tofu, too. I still have a couple of those lazy mapo tofu sauce packets in my pantry. I’ll need to make it again soon.
