Foo Chow Red Yeast Rice Wine for Confinement Period

Feeling lucky, I searched the Internet for confinement rice wine makers and found one based in Malaysia. It was a family business and they shared my surname. I sent them an email and inquire if they could export it  and then I realised they probably couldn't so I asked if they could share a simple wine recipe. Didn't expect a reply and of course I received nothing.

During the conversation with Aunty Angie, she forewarned me that the wine I would require for Jen's confinement period might not be available in shop. I checked with Joanna and she confirmed it. Either too expensive if we could find any and even so, it would not be good enough in quality.

Fortunately Joanna could make wine and she had the equipment to do it. Even more fortunately, she agreed to help us. We had a short discussion 2 nights ago and concluded that we needed exactly 3 months to complete the job and we could not afford any failures or delay as we were 100 days away from the baby's expected birth date. The following day was a Saturday, we spent half the day running around to get the ingredients for the mission.

Recipe of Joanna's Foo Chow Red Yeast Rice Wine (Expected to make 3.75L, ~5 bottles)

Ingredients:

67.5 gram wine yeast
3L boiled water
4kg glutinous rice
1kg red yeast rice (or red fermented rice)

Cost breakdown:

Yeast - $1.50
Glutinous Rice - $8.80
Red yeast rice - $9.75
Total :- AUD$20.05

Steps:

- Cook 4kg of glutinous rice and let it cool
- Grind red yeast rice (do not cook) into finer form with a food processor
- Grind Yeast (wine yeast) into powdery form with a food processor
- Boil 3L of water and let it cool
- Mix yeast with red fermented rice thoroughly with hands (wear a sanitary glove please)
- Then lastly, make balls of glutinous rice and cover each ball with the red yeast mixture.
- Place balls into the pre-sterialised fermenting container (i don't know what term they use for this)
- Add the 3L of water in.
- Mix very thoroughly, it will be a tough job because glutinous rice is heavy and hard to work with.
- Cover container and it's done. We have to wait 3 months and see if it turns out to be real, mean, nutritious Foo Chow Red Yeast Rice Wine suitable for usage during the confinement period.


Washing the glutinous rice

Red fermented rice

Wine yeast "Jiu Bing"

Cooking the glutinous rice



Beauty


Another 2kg

Red rice. Do not cook, just wash it and grind.

Mixing with glutinous rice

Balls in the fermentation jar.

Two friends to help out in the mixing

Mix and Mix and Mix

Ready for fermentation


Closing ceremony

19 comments:

  1. Hope it will be a success, the efforts will not be wasted I am sure :)
    - theng

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your wife is a blessed woman :)
    - theng

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, surprised you will try tis out...btw, my colleague family, a hock chew, makes tis every year. Some tips...she said to mix the fermenting slurry every day for a week, then leave it covered and undisturbed for a mth. The wine would have formed and separated as a top layer, while the slurry solids settles at the bottom. Taste the wine, it should be sweet tasting. Be careful to look out for contaminating stuff such as mold, can see them as fur balls like our bread molds. If wine is sour, proj fails, discard. Don't worry abt that too much, have alternatives to tis wine. I didn't take much of tis and when jen is doing confinement, it's hot summer, less to worry as compared to cold winter :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. wow ur landlady is good!
    hope ur rice wine is a success =)

    -Julia

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ 2nd sis: And I'm surprised you actually do read my blog! I never thought I could still surprise you after 33 years of bad surprises. haha.

    Thanks for the tips. I think what I would do is to shake the huge jar a little everyday. I am not going to open the lid at all, even though the air might be dryer here and the chances of mold infestation may be lower.

    The reason why I started this project is that alternatives are either too expensive or probably not as good over here. It is not possible to bring in the good stuff from Singapore as well. And of course, I see it as a good learning experience.

    I think you are right, it will be much warmer in the summer and we should be able to cope. But if I have these wine ready, it will keep the MIL quieter. :)

    Thanks for always watching me Sis. I have always appreciated, just didn't know how to tell you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @theng: thanks. I hope it will be successful. 3 months is a long wait. It can be quite sad if things doesn't turn out that well. My wife is blessed? hehe I'm not sure about that. I have a lot of flaws she has to put up with.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Julia: thank you Julia. Why aren't you posting with yr google account :P

    ReplyDelete
  8. ...and I have NO idea that you can write quite well, haha. It's been a while since i read things u wrote..hmm...school compo maybe? I enjoy reading yr blog, almost everyday, so I'm updated :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. @ 2nd sis: I haven't write anything for years. I'm rusty and I thought it's a good idea to write something and see if I could get back to my secondary school standard.

    You'll probably get bored because I'm just updating every-day issues as records here. If you enjoy it, all the better! Maybe you can pass the link to Elder sis if you communicate with her online. haha

    ReplyDelete
  10. hi!! whereabouts in perth did you get those ingredients? im a student in perth and i grew up eating that! haha but ever since i went to perth i couldnt cook it myself because i didnt know where to get the ingredients ):

    ReplyDelete
  11. @prince: you can get all of them at any oriental stalls. they are all over the place so it's not difficult at all.

    If you visit Northbridge for example, you would have come across Emma. Over there you should find most, if not all that you need.

    ReplyDelete
  12. @asingaporeanson: cheers! what about that fermentation jar thingy?

    ReplyDelete
  13. @prince, that jar is specially used for making wine. if you want to make wine, I can ask my ex-landlady where she got it from.

    ReplyDelete
  14. hi i try to make some but 3x become sour pls help.

    ReplyDelete
  15. U may dispose it if it turn sour.

    Adding more water will dilute the alcohol level or it's taste.

    You may try this blog. I have tried it last month and turn out very nice. I added more red yeast. The more you add the sweeter & redness it is.

    http://www.goingwithmygut.com/going_with_my_gut/2010/03/grandmas-ang-chow-foochow-red-rice-wine.html

    I tried 1kg of white glutinous rice with a bowl of about 150 gram of red yeast. I finished 500 ml in a morning as it is so nice.

    Have a try.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Concerning water added to the glutinous rice wine, I feel that to add 1 cup the maximum or sprinkle a bit over the rice on the day of putting it in a pot.

    I prefer little to no water added. It taste thicker and smell great with this method.

    1kg I tried yield 1little of rice wine.

    Yesterday I have just harvested 2.5 kg glutinous rice and it has 4.5 bottles of rice wine @ 750 ml per bottle. Harvested a month without water added at all.

    Some likes to add flour & sugar which are not my favorite method too. Tradition method does not add this.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dear Singaporeanson,
    On behalf of my preggie cousin who is currently in Melbourne; is there a method to make this wine in time for her etd which is in early dec? Also, may I know where in Melboune can she buy the wine jar? Only 2 months to go! Am so worried about her! Looking forward to your reply!

    Thank you!
    Melissa
    meow_21@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  18. I am making some for the first time, Any suggestions on how to best filter at the end?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheesecloth, muslin or a fine steel mesh filter should do the trick at home.

      Delete