Kung pao chicken (宫保鸡丁）

1. Step 1 (Make ginger-leek water)

2. a. Quarter a 10 cm leek in the length direction, and chopped quartered leek into 1 cm long;

3. b. Finely chop ginger and garlic;

4. c. Chop the fresh chilies into about approx 1cm thick rings (deseeded), you can also use dry chilly if you happen to have it. Due to personal preference, I use fresh chilly.

5. d. Prepare a small bowl of water, put chopped ginger and Leek inside the water for about an hour (This step d can be skipped if the cooking time is limited), leave garlic for Step 5

6. Step 2 (Prepare the chicken)
a. Gently hit the chicken breast with the blade of your kitchen knife or finely score the chicken if you are using a small knife, do it to both sides, make sure it is not cut through (this would allow the chicken to absorb more flavour when it is being marinated later).

7. b. Slice the gentle-cut chicken breast to strips, then chop the slices to cubes.

8. c. Put chopped chicken into a bowl or a mixing container.

9. Add the following into the chicken:
two tablespoon of ginger-leek water (prepared at the "Part 1", ignore it if not available)
one tablespoon of soy sauce
one tablespoon of rice wine

10. d. Mix the chicken with your hand, it is not a pleasant thing to do, but it helps the chicken coat well in the sauce. You can use any mixing tool if you can;t do this with your hand, chop sticks or fork, etc.

11. e. Add some salt to lock the water and sauce in the chicken, mix it again with hand or tool.

12. f. Add one table spoon of cornflour, not too generous though. mix it again.

13. g. Finally, add one tablespoon of vegetable oil (this prevents the chicken from being stuck on the wok when cooked later), mix it again and leave it aside for about 20 mins, the longer the merrier. No need to time it, because by the time you finish the other steps, the chicken will be ready to use.

14. Step 3 (Fry peanuts)
a. Heat up a wok gently, put some vegetable oil in the wok, just enough to cover the bottom. Add a handful of peanuts in and keep stirring to make sure they don't get burned. It takes about 5-10 mins depending on the fire. Take them out from the wok and leave them aside to cool down. I tend to save the oil in the wok for later use.

15. Step 4 (Make Kung Pao Sauce)
a. Prepare a bowl, add one tablespoon of the following:
ginger-leek water, rice wine, soy sauce, vinegar

16. and half teaspoon of salt, three teaspoon of sugar, two teaspoon of starch (you can use corn starch or potato starch, or you can substitute it with cornflour if you can't get any cooking starch). Mix it well, you will need to mix it again later just right before pouring it down around the edge of wok.

17. Step 5 (Cook)
a. Heat the wok with gentle fire, you might have saved the oil used for frying peanuts earlier, add a bit more vegetable oil just enough to cover the surface.

18. b. Add ground pepper into the oil and let it fry for about 1-2 mins, add the chilly rings in, stir and fry for another 1-2 mins,you should be able to smell the fragrance of them mixed together. Now turn up the fire slightly, add the chicken into the sizzling oil, stir until the chicken are browned. Now turn the fire back down a bit.

19. c. Add one teaspoon of chilly bean sauce (or chilly powder) into the wok, stir fry for 3 mins or until the chilly bean sauce (or chilly powder) is well mixed with chicken.

20. d. Now turn the fire up slightly, push the chicken towards one side of the wok to create a bit of space, add the chopped ginger, leek and garlic onto the space you just made( use ginger and leek soaked in the bowl if you managed to make the ginger-leek water at the beginning). Tilt the wok towards the side where the ginger, garlic and leek are, let the oil mix with them, fry for 2 mins. Then mix them well with chicken. Now make sure the wok is reasonably hot before you carry out with the next step.

21. e. Stir the Kung pao sauce you made at step 4 before pour it into the wok along the edge, let it react for 3-4 mins, give a good mix before adding the peanuts in.

22. f. Sim it for 3-4 mins if you think the chicken needs to be cooked a bit longer, but make sure the fire is turned down to the minimum.

23. Now ready to be served with boiled rice, enjoy it!