Hakka Rice Wine
Hakka Rice Wine
There comes a time in the journey of home cook that you begin a search for your own ingredients. My food adventures has brought me to connect with many like-minded home cooks and it seems many home cooks actually make their own rice wine. Don’t be distracted by the censored image above. It is there for a purpose.
So it seems it takes about a month to complete the entire fermentation process and the rule of thumb for newbies is to start small. Don’t grab any old recipe and dive straight into a micro brewery business in your toilet. Start off with personal consumption as it is the golden rule.
If it works then you can continue to make for your friends if you like.
There are some taboos though. It seems if you are going to make this rice wine, you must not utter any noise or sound. If you do, the wine will ferment badly and you would have to throw the entire batch out and start all over again.
So I thought I would try. And see if it is that easy as they say.
Let’s try it. If it works, and after a month of fermentation, you will find a nice bottle of rice wine. Since I am Hakka, it will be Hakka Rice Wine.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 kg Glutinous Rice
1 portion of 红 something something (bah.. I forgot the name.. The aunty that shared her recipe didn’t know what it was either and neither did I know what she was saying..)
2 pieces of 酒饼 (apparently you can get it at the Chinese medicinal shop.. Incidentally you can also get the portion of 红 something something from the same medicinal shop.. Just ask the herb concoctionist.)
1 bottle of 白酒 (this is something like a guarantee to make the magic work..)
Method
1. Steam the glutinous rice until cook. Or you can cook it in the rice cooker. But dont forget it is 2 whopping kilograms of glutinous rice.
2. Once steamed or cooked. Spread it out on a large round plate to cool down completely. Make sure it is completely cool.
3. While that is being done, ground the 红 something something into fine powder and then mix it into the glutinous rice. Then crush the 2 pieces of 酒饼 and scatter it into the glutinous rice. Give it a good mix.
4. Put the glutinous rice mix into a container, glass is best. Corning ware has a nice glass casserole dish with cover that you could use.
5. Pour in the 白酒 and close the lid. Some people say no need the 白酒, but who knows until you try making two batches one with and one without.
6. Once you are done, wrap up the container in aluminium foil and label it so that you know when to open it up again. All the best!
Bon Appetit!