Adapted from Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook, by Ellen Schrecker Posted by Jon Ziegler, with notes and commentary. This is a pretty easy way to make a very flavorful, tender beef stew. It can be as hot as you like to make it. When cooking for normal mortals, I use about 1T of sambal oeleck and none of the optional stuff, but I thought this potluck version worked quite well. 1. Heat your pan (I use a wok) over a high flame, then put in the peanut oil. It is hot enough to cook when a few small wisps of smoke appear. 2. Toss in the garlic, chopped ginger, hot pepper paste, Szechwan pepper, and other hot stuff. Stir it around for 15-30 seconds, enough to mix it up with the oil and sizzle a bunch. Then put in the large scallion pieces, stir a bit, and then add the beef. 3. Stir-fry the beef for about a minute, making sure that the oil gets at all the surfaces. This should be pretty vigorous tossing. 4. Add the soy and sugar, stir-frying for another couple of minutes. 5. Add water to cover the meat, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover, and let simmer for at least 1 1/2 hours, until the meat has become very soft. 6. Cook up the noodles. 7. Sprinkle the chopped scallions over the beef and serve. Notes: a. The best way to serve this is to make it too hot for anybody else to eat, and then consume it yourself over the course of a couple of days. It makes a truly fine breakfast. B. The second best way to serve this is to give each person a bowl of noodles, put beef and sauce over the top, and sprinkle with more scallions if desired. C. I usually transfer from the wok to a good simmering pot. I like to let it go for several hours at low heat. I have used a crockpot several times, but I have found that it concentrates the Szechwan pepper flavor to an unusual degree. D. This recipe can be doubled or tripled easily. Just do the fast stir-fry stuff in multiple batches, unless you have a really powerful stove. And don't simply multiply the peanut oil for the stir-fry; use less. E. This makes good eating cold. It is also a very easy dish to prepare in advance and then heat up (microwave works fine). It freezes fine. F. Szechwan peppercorns are a strange and extraordinary Chinese spice. They are not hot, they are a little bit like black peppercorns, but not much. They have a strange, aromatic fragrance, and cannot be substituted for. Don't even try. If you don't have them, leave them out. Jon Ziegler <jonz@netcom. Com> (From the First Bay Area Chile Heads HotLuck)

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