Fermented Red Glutinous Rice Wine (红糟）

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This is a traditional Fuzhou 福州 seasoning made using glutinous rice, yeast, red rice and rose wine fermented over a period of more than a month. Once the fermented red glutinous rice wine 红糟 is ready, it can be stored in the fridge for a year and used to cook the famous  Red Glutinous Rice Wine Chicken 红糟鸡 (hong zao ji).

I first came across this dish when I was studying in the USA where a fellow Singaporean cooked it and I fell in love with the dish. Anything with wine fragrance, ginger and, tender chicken and  a delicious sauce, I LOVE. But back in Singapore, I seldom come across this dish and as southern hokkiens, it is not really our tradition to have this at home. So I was really happy when my mum learned to ferment the rice as well as make the yummy chicken dish from a community centre cooking class conducted by Mdm Lee Swee Har, who is pretty popular. She holds a variety of Chinese cooking classes at various community centres in the East and my mum went to her classes at Kembangan CC. On a side note, some of these CC cooking demo classes are very good. I have learned quite a few delicious dishes from various cultures here, and my mum who is such a seasoned cook, finds the classes interesting as she still learns new things and techniques though sometimes her techniques are better. =P

This is a ” body warming” dish that is very nourishing and also used as confinement food. The delicious chicken dish is pretty easy to prepare (compared to fermenting the wine which is not difficult but needs to be very careful) and it can be eaten with rice or mee sua. YUMZ!!! This dish is a great dish to have in cold weather or to warm a “yin” body.

As with fermentation, sterilization of all equipment and making sure everything is clean and dry is very important as we do not want the wrong mold and bacteria growing. Some of my mum’s classmates tried and failed mainly because of failure to sterilise or cool the rice properly. To sterilise, the easiest way is to wash the equipment used thoroughly and pour boiling hot water over and dry thoroughly with kitchen paper towels or to spray with 85% medical grade alcohol and wipe dry with paper towels. Making sure that everything is dry is very important as water allows mold and bacteria to grow.

It is also important to use the right fermentation container and in this case, only a porous pot like clay or ceramic pot should be used. Never use any form of plastic or metal pot. Just like how wine was fermented in clay urns traditionally. My mum uses Corningware, which is made with ceramic.

Equipment needed:

Clean and dry 2-3L clay or ceramic pot and cover with a large opening for easy use

Clean and dry Muslin cloth for wrapping the pot (again, porous) My mum used a sterilised baby diaper cloth

Steamer to steam glutinous rice

Grinder to grind red rice and wine cake

Clean and dry airtight storage containers (for final product and the wine by product)

Note on Ingredients:

Some of the ingredients may not be very commonly found. For the Wine Cake or yeast, you can pick it up from any traditional Chinese Medical Hall. I state traditional here because I mean the old school ones and not the modern chains.

Rose Wine or 玫瑰露酒 （meigui lu jiu) is sold at some supermarkets (sometimes at the alcohol counter near the cashier and sometimes at the wine section). Usually can be found in Fairprice or Sheng Siong. I tend to buy the more expensive one in an ornate white vase like bottle as after all the effort, I don’t want a lousy rose wine to spoil it.A bottle is pretty expensive, I think about $40 or so but it is pretty fragrant and you can use it for other dishes like Soya sauce chicken or to season pork ribs in fried pork ribs. Usually a small amount goes a long way.

Red Rice or 红谷米 can be easily found in medical halls and most supermarkets. This nutritious rice is the reason the final product is red. So everything in this recipe is natural and no colouring is added at all.

Sorry that I do not have any pictures at this point as the last fermentation happened some time ago and I have not started the blog. Do feel free to share any photos you have or your own tips and steps so that we can all learn and improve together.

I will share the recipe for cooking the final 红糟鸡 red glutinous rice wine chicken dish in another post. For other delicious recipes, please visit our Food page.