Gung Bao Chicken

I learnt how to make this classic Chinese dish in Beijing. On a snowy winter’s morning I took a cab to a houtong (traditional Chinese house) in the north of the city to do some cooking. The cabbie dropped me off and I walked along the narrow streets, shivering, looking for the right house, which turned out to be a few tiny rooms around a courtyard. So in a freezing kitchen, my host, the cooking teacher Cheng Yi, and I made a superb lunch, including this fiery, warmin