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1
Joint the rabbit into small pieces — no large sections. This is a condition of Sichuan preparation: pieces small enough to absorb the dressing or sauce fully and to cook briefly without drying.
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2
Bring the water to the boil with ginger, spring onions, and Shaoxing wine. Add the rabbit pieces and blanch at a steady simmer. The blanch removes excess fat and firms the texture; do not omit it before cold dressing. The flesh is ready when it has lost all pink at the bone and the surface is set — probe the thickest joint.
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3
Lift the rabbit from the water and cool completely at room temperature, then refrigerate until cold throughout. The flesh must be firm and cool to the touch before dressing; warm rabbit will not carry the cold sesame dressing cleanly.
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4
This is where the dish lives or dies: combine chilli oil, soy sauce, sesame, and ground roasted Sichuan pepper, then dress the cold rabbit pieces thoroughly, turning each piece so that the mala flavour penetrates every surface. Taste: the dressing must be at once numbing, hot, savoury, and faintly sweet from the rabbit itself — adjust chilli oil or Sichuan pepper accordingly. An under-dressed piece has failed the dish.
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5
For the braised variation: follow the hongshao technique — brown the blanched pieces with doubanjiang and dried chillies until the oil is brick-red and deeply fragrant, then braise in a covered vessel. Unlike hongshao pork, pull the rabbit from the heat the moment the flesh yields to light pressure; it dries out rapidly and will not recover.