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Wednesday 9 July 2014

FOOCHOW RED RICE WINE



福州紅酒
Rice Wine
 is widely used in Chinese Cooking

Different dialects 
in the Chinese Community
brew their Rice Wine
unique to their individual groups

Rice Wines 
are called by different names in their own dialects
Cantonese call theirs 'Wong-Zhou'
Hock Kien, 'Mi-Jiu'
Mandarin, 'Huang-Jiu'

 Foochow have their own signature variant of 
'Ang-Jiu' or 'Oint-U'
which is RED in colour!

Basically
all rice wine, whether yellow or red are the same
and
made by the same method
except with some additions of ingredients

My late mother-in-law took pride in her 'Oint-U'
which is sweet and 'strong'

To the older generations
certain 'pantang' needs to be observed
while making the rice wine
but 
my late mother in law just told us to keep our mouth shut while making!

Using her basic method
I have come out with this easy and no fuss method
which I gladly share with you

First of all
There are 2 important rules:
1) to keep all utensils clean and thoroughly dry
2) to make sure the rice is cooked through and cooled overnight.

When completely cooled,
the ingredients are ready to be mixed together.







The glutinous rice already mixed with
blended red yeast
and
ground wine biscuits
ready to be put into the glass bottle



Done!

 Now wait for 26 days for it to mature.


Foochow Red Rice Wine
1 kg glutinous rice
100g red yeast
1 sweet wine biscuit
1 hot wine biscuit

Utensils
a glass bottle big enough for the ingredients, sun dried thoroughly
a piece of cloth to cover the mouth of the bottle
a string to secure the cloth
muslin cloth to strain the wine during harvesting

Method:
1. cook rice in rice cooker, add same amount of water as you would cook rice
2. scoop out fully cooked rice to cool overnight
3. blend red rice yeast
4. put wine biscuits in plastic bag & mash with a glass bottle
5. mix red yeast powder & wine biscuits with rice, in batches
6. put the well mixed batch into the bottle, pressing to the bottom of the bottle
7. continue until all the rice is finished
8. cover the mouth of the bottle with a piece of cloth, secure it with a string
9. cover the bottle loosely with the plastic cover
10. leave in a cool place for 26-30 days

To Harvest:
1) Make sure the top does not have any BLACK mold (poisonous!)
    Pour away all if you find any black spots!
    and start again...... making sure you soak the bottle, cleaned & sun it well 
    Cause: contamination during the process!
2) some white mold is OK, just scoop up the white spots & discard

11. This top layer is kept as 'chow' or residue
12. strain the rest of the mixture through a muslin cloth
13. keep the wine (liquid) in a bottle. Do not fill to the brim but 2" below
      to allow further fermentation
14.keep the residue in a jar & sprinkle some salt on top & store in fridge

Notes:
1. 100ml bottled water or (water boiled & cooled overnight) may be used to clean utensils 
     off the glutinous rice & yeast, and can be added to the lot for fermentation.
2. rice wine will remain red if store in fridge
3. to get a clear bottle of wine, drain the clear wine to a new bottle after it has settled for 
    a few days.
4. cloudy ones at the bottom of the bottle can be kept for cooking mee sua or sea shells
5. you can collect 1 litre of wine from this recipe

17 comments:

Judy Leong from Facebook said...

You are such a gem. I enjoyed reading your blog n the very detailed n meticulous instructions n method of preparing this red wine. Thank you very much for your time n effort in writing out the preparation. I am sure this will help all those who wish to prepare this red wine. Really appreciate this.

Katie Foong: You are welcomed. Sharing means share to the detail. I wish all of you success in making this fabulous foochow red rice wine. We Foochow cook almost everything with it, be it pork, chicken, fish, sea shells or even Beehoon!

Sylvia Tiong Ai Sieng: Yes, very true, foochow can't do without red wine and ang chow...salivating now...

Christine Yong from Facebook said...

Thank you so much for sharing 😘 love reading your blog..
you are such a wonderful lady. God bless ❤❤❤

Katie Foong: Thank you. May God Bless you too.

Noble Pll from Facebook said...

Thank you dear Katie Foong for sharing.
May i know glutinous rice is 1000 g /1 kilo or 10000gms = 10 kilos

Katie Foong: Only 1kg i.e. 1000g glutinuous rice

Noble Pll: Noted . thx

Katie Foong: just changed to 1 kg instead of 1000g (so confusing) thanks for your note.

Irene Tseu from Facebook said...

1 kg only yield 1 bottle + 1 jar as shown in d pic?

Katie Foong: No, can get about +/- 2 bottles (oyster sauce bottle)
& 2 jars of residue (peanut butter bottles)

Irene Tseu: Tq

Irene Tseu: Was d sweet wine biscuit white in colour & round shape?
Where to get hoti wine biscuit? I never seen hot wine biscuit.

Katie Foong: Yes, it is white colour & look like flatten rounds.
They usually sell 2 types, just ask them they will show you.
The difference between the 2 is their difference in size by appearance .

Katie Foong: You can either get it from white rice seller, organic shops or CHINESE medical shop.

Memi Cheah from Facebook said...

What is the difference between sweet wine biscuit n hot wine biscuit?

Katie Foong: There are 2 types of white yeast biscuits for making wine,
sweet (makes the wine sweet) and hot (gives strong alcoholic taste).
Foochow like their wine sweet, so instead of 2 normal hot ones,
we have replaced one with the sweet one.

Katie Foong: So, Gillian Lee, you got it? Of course you can very well
use 2 hot type instead if you prefer.

Gillian Lee: Thanks for yr clear explanation.

Sally Ngai from Facebook said...

hi Katie, where do u buy fresh & good rice wine biscuits ?
I think good biscuits wil yield more tasty wine ? !

Katie Foong: Actually you need both, good wine biscuits &
good old glutinous rice to yield more wine ! Can buy the
wine biscuits from shops selling rice or sometimes sundry shop too.

Yeong Chew Woh from Facebook said...

Those home made ones are selling around RM25 a bottle, the sauce bottle size.

Katie Foong: Make your own , less than rm 10 for 2 bottles + wine

Sue Lim from Facebook said...

Thk you for kindly sharing all the details.
As for the mentioned old glutinous rice .. does new rice works as well?

Katie Foong: It does. Old rice produce more wine , that's all .

Stefanie Chong from Facebook said...

Thanks for sharing the recipe. My late mother use to make afew years back.
As i read though i just want to know there is NO water added????
Pls advice

Katie Foong: Ok, this is a very good question. Normally when we make
for own consumption we make it thick! For sale, add water to get
extra bottles. Be care careful when adding water, use boiled &
cooled overnight water! Can also use bottled water. Usually we use
this water to clear or clean the utensils of glutinous rice & yeast.
This is then poured into the bottle of mixture

Stefanie Chong: Thank you so very much for answering my Qus. I forget on that part. 😉😉😘😘😘

Tan Ai Lean from Facebook said...

Love the fresh red clear translucent colour of the wine ., must b
real yummy wine

Katie Foong: Yes, to get it must let the wine sit for few days &
transfer the clear liquid to another bottle. The thicker ones at
the bottom use to cook Mee sua or sea shells 👍yummy

Lynn Ong from Facebook said...

Hi Katie, thank you very much for sharing this recipe.
Any advice on d shelf life? Bought both wine n chow more than a year
ago but no chance to cook.
Thanks

Katie Foong: Once the colour of wine turns dark, the taste changes.
You may very well throw it away. Red rice wine keep best in the fridge,
colour & taste never change, even for 2-3 years!

Lynn Ong: Thank you thank you for this valuable advice Katie Foong.
Will keep in mind so no more wastage. 😭😭
Have a beautiful Sunday

Katie Foong: Lynn Ong same to you too

Unknown said...

Hi Katie,

Would red rice be OK or must it be glutinous rice?

I suppose the red yeast n wine biscuits can be obtained from Chinese medicinal halls?

I assume the rice remnant that has been filtered out can be used to make more wine in place of the wine biscuits n the yeast?? I suppose it has to be stored in the fridge n either used for cooking or marinating or for the next batch of wine making replacing the red yeast n wine biscuits??

Thank you!!

Katie Foong said...

1) Red rice sold in the organic shops is different. You need to use glutinous rice.
2) yes, red yeast & wine biscuits can be bought from Chinese medicinal shops and organic shops
3) when wine has been collected, the remnants are kept for cooking meat & sea shells. It keeps well in the fridge.
4)
No. you cannot use this remnants as a starter for next batch!

mylifelessons said...

Thank you for posting this. My father is from Foo Chow and we make this red yeast rice chicken soup - my favorite childhood dish. Yum. We used to be able to buy the fermented red yeast paste in Ranch 99 here in Los Angeles. Now they are no longer available. So thank you for posting this to allow me to try make it myself.

I'm having difficulty to find the red yeast though. There are a lot of red yeast rice powder available online. Is that the same as the red yeast used in this recipe?

thanks again.

Katie Foong said...

I have not tried making wine with the red yeast rice powder. Here we do use the red yeast rice powder for cooking.
So, if it is pure red yeast rice powder, I think it should be fine.

Hope to get a feed back from you soon.

Thank you

Norlene Tan said...

Norlene Tan wrote:
Hi Katie, Saw your post of making homemade red rice wine and very interested to do it myself. I am pregnant and wish to know if I can make the red rice wine at home myself as I'm staying abroad with my husband.
Can a pregnant women do it at home? Is there forbidden of doing it while pregnant? Some folks say women with period cannot go near it.....
Please share if you know about it.
Thank you so much and hope to hear from you soon.
Regards,
Norlene Tan

Katie Foong said...

Norlene Tan,
First of all, Congratulations!
Babies are God's blessings!
My mom in law said that pregnant women or women having mensus are not suppose to make the rice wine. It will turn SOUR! That's why mom or relatives will make for them.
Hope that explains.