Chinese Rice Wine Recipes I

The best rice wine ever (very very very sweet, no tartness at all, and full of rice wine flavor), from my mom's neighbor's granddaughter-in-law's mom. I bought 2 dozen bottles, RM6.50/US$2 each. Next brew I'm told, will be RM7 each. Worth every cent.

Ever made rice wine? I have, a few years back, and it was a total disaster. Based on a friend's written instructions, I brewed my own wine and waited eagerly for 30 days for my rice to turn into wine. When it was time to 'harvest' the wine, Hub and I, like a pair of expectant parents, had no idea what to do. We spent a whole Saturday afternoon pressing down on the fermented rice with our soup ladles, scooping the wine out and funneling it into bottles. After 3 hours, we had 4 precious bottles of pretty good (meaning sweet) but cloudy wine, although we could've gotten 5 bottles if we didn't spill. It was truly laborious. Three, four days later all the wine went sour and had to be thrown away, and that ended my moonshining days. Those who still aren't deterred can follow Rei or Nee's excellent wine-making instructions, both of whom are experts at making red rice wine, a Fuzhou/Foochow specialty.

Chinese yellow rice wine (the more common type) is usually home-brewed for mothers who have just had their babies. The lucky mothers have MILs or their own mothers to brew the wine for them while others have to buy them from the market or friends of friends who make the wine. The sweeter the wine, the better. The wine is cooked with chicken, or eggs or even pig liver, with lots of ginger to keep the mom warm. Not all Chinese new mothers drink rice wine during confinement. I think it is more a Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese practice because if you ask the China Chinese, they will be as blank about it as Mrs.Jones. Or maybe it is still practised in southern Chinese villages, I'm not sure. Whatever, rice wine is drunk to strengthen the new mother (and keep the baby stoned through breast-feeding?!) for a whole month, a period called 'confinement' which literally means the woman is confined to her house and in some cases, to her room for a whole month! During that month, the new mom is not to wash her hair for fear of weakening/cooling her body, can you believe it?! I once went to see a friend a couple of weeks into her confinement, and I will never ever forget the stench when I stepped into her room. Every window was closed, there was no air-con and the fan was banned. I nearly collapsed withholding my breath and grinning at the same time. Advice: visit new mothers early before they become 'odorous'!

I never went fully with those confinement practices and my first and only confinement lady (those busy-bodies who charge you an arm to supervise your maid and you) and I clashed over traditional practices and my 'modern' ways. She made my confinement utterly miserable (yes, I did have the blues. Out of the clinic and back at home, on the 4th day, I wept as I breast-fed Yi, shocked with the sudden realisation that I was a mother) because she wouldn't let me eat veg and fruits and feed me and Hub rice wine chicken two times a day until both of us were...you know, the condition where prunes prove useful? My advice is: get rid of those domineering confinement ladies, have your MIL come over (if you are on talking terms) or better still, emotionally black-mail your own mother to come over, eat properly and do wash your hair as usual but dry it quickly, and most of all, keep warm, especially your feet. Never lift heavy objects too. Where was I?

Okay, so one month after the baby's arrival, a big celebration called 'Full Month' (mistakenly called 'Full Moon' most of the time) will be held and guess what's the piece de resistance? Yes, rice wine chicken, one of my fav dishes. The strangest thing about this dish is that it tastes better if it was cooked for a woman who really had just given birth. I think it's because those ladies are so pampered they get the best kampung/village chickens. And if there's one dish restaurants don't cook as well as home, it is rice wine chicken. Doesn't it disappoint you whenever you get invited to Full Month dinners and the catered rice wine chicken tastes like chicken oil soup? Anyway, that's what I think so I'm always happy when new mothers invite me over to eat their rice wine chicken. Now that most of my friends are...ehem, not exactly in a productive age, I don't get to eat 'real' rice wine chicken. So what do I do about that? Cook my own rice wine chicken of course, with wine from my mom's neighbor's granddaughter-in-law's mother who makes the sweetest rice wine I have ever tasted. (Su-en, I'm told you read this blog, so please tell W that I have several bottles waiting for her. Am making some special zhongzi too for her. And Don is to tell K too, thank you.)

The Chinese believe that certain food will give strength and heat and rice wine chicken is one of those dishes. There' s the wine that runs your blood, the chicken that nourishes and the ginger that keeps you warm. My mom used to cook rice wine eggs for me and my sis and sometimes rice wine pig liver and kidneys. It made me feel so special because it was specially for me, once a month.

I will be giving 3 recipes using rice wine. These are for all those preggies, especially AF who just started reading my blog and for my younger brother Clive's wife Lena who unexpectantly is expecting in December after more than 8 years of marriage. I am going to have another nephew/niece! I have a strong feeling it's a nephew although personally, well, never mind, boys are okay too.

First, we start with rice wine egg. I have never cooked this before until today and gosh, this is so delicious that I forgot to take a photo before I poured the whole thing into my stomach!


1. Heat up a wok or small pot, add 2 t sesame oil and two or more knobs of ginger, smashed lightly. Fry until the ginger is slightly browned. Crack in an egg (or two).


2. Turn the egg over when the edge is set.


3. Using the sharp corner of your frying ladle, break and roughly scramble the egg, but not too much. Let it fry a couple more seconds, but not too long because the yolk should be half cooked only.


4. Pour in 1 cup of good yellow rice wine, let it boil for 20 counts (add a pinch of salt if like) and dish out. Not very impressive looking but believe me, this is heavenly. The incredible sweetness and the flavor just combine into an intoxicatingly delicious soup.

Next...Chinese rice wine Part II

Thai Candied Cassava (Montad Chuame)

Montad Chuame-- I love love love this! Only 3 ingredients are needed (5 if you include the salt and rice flour) to make this yummy dessert!

When I first started reading food blogs two years ago, Appon's Thai Food was (still is) my favorite blog for the most authentic, tested and tried (Thai) recipes while Grab My Fork was my favorite for food reviews (see my links). Appon may not have the best photos, but I trust her recipes 100% because I've tried a number and they really work, unlike some websites which have beautiful photos but the recipes are a waste of time and ingredients. These days I read the recipes and can figure out whether the recipes are worth trying.

I love Thai desserts and montad chuame is among my top 3 Thai desserts, above even that most famous Thai dessert, sticky rice and mango. This dessert is not available in KK and so I always eat as much of it as I can whenever I visit Singapore. I tried a couple of times to cook it but the cassava (or tapioca as it is known here) always become soft and powdery, like boiled potatoes, and the sugar did not permeate into the cassava. A good montad chuame should have cassava that gives a good sticky, chewy bite, tastes sweet all through, and the coconut milk should be fresh, thick and fragrant. Imagine my joy when I finally succeeded making this dessert with Appon's recipe. I think that was how I got hooked on food blogs, so yes, thanks to Appon.

There are two types of cassava, the regular white type and the harder-to-find yellow cassava. I am not particularly fussy about which type but today I used the yellow type, bought from a shop near Tshung Tsin Sec School, because I know they'd look better in my photos. It really doesn't matter which type you use. I have changed Appon's recipe by doubling the amount of cassava because I find the sugar syrup very sweet. I also reduced the salt. If you are familiar with Thai desserts, you'll know that the Thais love to balance the sweetness with saltiness, and sometimes so much salt is used that it spoils the taste unless you have a Thai tongue. I also reduced the cooking time by a whole hour because the sun was going down and I needed the light.

Yesterday I swore I will go on diet "tomorrow". I was happily eating my montad chuame after dinner tonight when Wey stood in front of me and said, "So who wanted to go on a diet?!" I cooly took a second helping and swore I'll go on a diet tomorrow...


This is how I like it--totally coated with coconut cream, the more the better!

Thai Candied Cassava (Montad Chuame)
1 kg cassava (unpeeled)
300g brown cane sugar*
250 ml water

*I used the brown sugar pieces from China. Ordinary white sugar is okay too but it won't give a golden syrup by the time the cassava is done.

1. Cut the cassava into 4 or 5 cm chunks and peel the skin off. Wash clean.

2. Put sugar and water into a large, shallow pot. This is so that the cassava can be arranged in one layer. Heat until sugar dissolves (it is okay to put everything together at once too, I've tried it) and then add the cassava. Cook over low heat for 1 1/2 hours or more (Appon's recipe says 2 hours) until the cassava is candied and translucent.You can turn the cassava once in a while during cooking although too much turning at the later stages will break the cassava up, so be careful.

3. If the sugar syrup looks thick, just dish the cassava out and pour the sugar syrup into a small bowl to serve. If the sugar syrup looks thin, you can increase the heat to high (you can take the cassava pieces out first so they won't burn) and let it thicken and caramelize. Remember the sugar syrup will thicken further upon cooling so don't cook it till it's too thick.

4. Let the cassava cool and serve with coconut cream and sugar syrup. You can serve montad chuame at room temperature or chilled.

Coconut Cream
1 large coconut, grated
300 ml water
1 heaped teaspoon rice flour
1/4 t salt

1. Add 150 ml water to the grated coconut, 'massage' the coconut well with your hands and extract the milk. Add the remaining water to the grated coconut again and do the same to get a thinner milk. Strain both thick and thin milk into a small pot, add the rice flour and salt.

2. Stir the milk over low heat until it thickens slightly and coats the back of your spoon. Do not let the cream boil or it will form lumps and become oily. The cream will thicken further upon cooling. Let cream cool.

Kedai Kopi Ria

Just when I thought I've eaten all the ngew chaps (mixed beef noodles, a Sabah specialty that is similar to the Vietnamese pho, but is not served with basil or beansprouts) this town has to offer, my MIL brought me to Restorant Ria next to Multi Bake, Damai (diagonally behind Tong Hing Supermarket) and I am blown away by the Thai ngew chap in one of the restaurant's stalls. And it appears I'm not the first flogger to eat there because the lady showed me a print out of a post on her stall from www.caneeliea.com.

I go to Apiwon whenever I crave a bowl of ngew chap . Apiwon's soup reminds me of that portable ngew chap stall at the now demolished Victory Cinema which was replaced by Wisma Tun Fuad. Does anyone remember that far back, when this guy used to carry his stall on a pole on his shoulders like how people still do so in present-day Cambodia? The soup at Apiwon is light and the yummy beef balls are big and 'home-made', unlike the rest of the beefballs in KK which are tiny and flavorless. Best of all, it's the cleanest non air-con noodles shop in KK and that's why I don't mind paying RM8/US$2.50 per modest bowl, making it the most expensive coffee-shop ngew chap in town. But wait, this post is about Rest. Ria's ngew chap.


Thai-style mixed beef soup mifen, only RM4.50/US$1.40 per bowlful of big meatballs, tripe, tendons and a choice of fresh beef slices or stewed beef. For another RM1/US$0.30, you can go for the big bowl which was so big I couldn't finish it.

From now on, I will have to decide between Apiwon and Res. Ria because the latter serves a big bowl of super yum ngew chap where the tasty beefballs are also big and 'homemade' and the soup is delicious with an extra flavor--bunga kantan!--and a tangyness and spiciness from a spoonful of lime juice and chili padi, and a superb chili dip flavored with lemon grass. Although Rest. Ria is the typical plastic-chairs-and-tables no-frills kind of coffeeshop, I give the Thai ngew chap stall two thumbs up for its tasty noodles and the fact that unlike other coffeeshops, including Apiwon, it serves its noodles in ceramic bowls, which wins high points from me. Remember my post on melamine?


Look Ma, I finished my food.


Tossed noodles (gon lao mien) with an assortment of pork, RM5/US$1.60.

Wey gave a high rating ("Because there's lots of pork oil!") to this plate of noodles, from another stall in Rest.Ria, except for the cha shao which he didn't eat because "First, it was colored, and you said never to eat colored cha shao and second, the cha shao was very dry, and I hate dry meat. But mom, look, the noodles don't have coloring." Good boy. He's going to inherit this blog. And have you ever eaten tossed noodles with so much topping? There's soup thrown in too, for RM5/US$1.60. In these inflationary days, when everybody's cutting back on servings?



Another look, close up.



If you see me there, do come over and say "Hi". Now where did I put my super-sized sunnies...

Fruitti Daifuku

Strawberry daifuku mochis

Mochis flavored with macha (green tea powder), red bean and custard I have eaten but not fruit mochis. I first read about ichiko daifuku mochis (strawberry glutinous rice sweets) on Bento's blog and then Guambat's blog. Remember the strawberries Yolanda brought back from LA? They made delightful mochis, especially when chilled, wrapped in a layer of koshi-an or red bean paste followed by another layer of glutinous rice dough. A couple of days ago I made more daifukus, filling them with mangoes, kiwis and even red dragonfruit. Surprisingly, they didn't taste as good as strawberry daifukus. I had made the glu wrapper too soft but the real problem I think was fruits like mangoes and kiwis go mushy easily. Next time, I'll stick to red bean filling or firm fruits like strawberries.



My friend Tina insists that to make good mochis, you must use Japanese glutinous rice flour which is not available here. Since I can't tell the difference if I don't have anything to compare with, I just used our local glu rice flour. Although making the mochi dough is easy (it is like making Chinese che fa bun, those glu balls with a filling of sugar and ground peanuts), wrapping the mochi isn't because the dough is very sticky and to get an equally thick layer of glu dough around the piece of fruit is not easy. You can see I've had some struggle with my mochis because they don't have a smooth skin.

I have reduced the sugar to as minimal as it can get because there's enough sweetness from the red bean paste. I recommend that you reduce or increase the amount of water to get the texture you like, but remember the mochis taste better chilled and they do get firmer in the fridge. Also. do experiment with different fillings, including peanut butter and chocolate.

Daifuku Mochis

The filling:
firm fruits
red bean paste

For dusting: 1 cup cornstarch

The mochi skin/wrapper:
1 cup glutinous rice flour
1 to 2 T fine sugar
3 /4 cup water (or 1 cup if you like your mochi soft)

1. Mix the above mochi wrapper ingredients into a smooth batter. For green tea mochis, add 1 t macha (green tea powder) to the batter. You can either microwave the batter for 3 min, take out and give it a stir and microwave another 2 min, or you can steam it in a shallow dish for 15 min. The cooked dough will be tranlucent-white.

2. While the batter is being cooked, get ready your filling and the plate of cornstarch which is necessary to keep the mochis from sticking to each other. If using fruits, cut the fruits into small thumb-sized pieces and wrap them in red bean paste or chilled peanut butter, rolling them as round as you can. You can also use plain red bean paste.

3. When cooked dough is still hot, use a tablespoon to scoop and another spoon to help scrap the dough onto the plate of cornflour until all dough is portioned into small tablespoon lumps on the cornstarch. Don't make the glu dough too big if your filling is small; you don't want to eat too much glu dough. Now dust your fingers and palms and flatten a piece of dough (will be still quite hot so be careful) and put in the filling, then wrap dough up and seal the opening with a tight pinch. Repeat until all dough is used up. Chill the mochis before serving.

Chao Shou ( Sichuan Wontons)

Sichuan wontons are called chao shou. Yummy with a hot and tangy sauce (I've overdosed on Sichuan peppercorns in the pic above).

Malaysian are more partial to Cantonese wontons, thin egg-wheat flour dumplings filled with chunks of crunchy prawns. However, feed a 'real' Cantonese from Guangzhou or Hong Kong our wontons and they'll turn up their noses because Malaysian wontons are a poor version made usually of a pinch of fatty minced pork and no prawns because fatty pork is cheaper than prawns. Northern Chinese wontons are filled with either minced pork or beef (no prawns), with veggies like chives, spring onions and in Shanghai, a delicate veg called xi cai, and the thicker wrappers are made of plain wheat flour. Sichuan wontons are not called as such; they are called chao shou, meaning crossed arms, for the way the dumplings are folded into triangles and the lower corners crossed over. Sichuan dumpling wrappers are also made of plain wheat flour and much bigger than our local wonton wrappers. Another difference is instead of serving the wontons in a lightly-flavored 'superior' stock, Sichuan chao shou are served in a bowl with a delicious sour, sweet, hot, tangy, flavorful sauce spooned over them.

My initial taste of authentic Sichuan food was a shock. It was so different from the Sichuan food we get here. While I took to the numbing 'ma' Sichuan peppercorns immediately, I didn't like the oiliness. I couldn't understand why Sichuan food is the second most loved Chinese food, world-wide, after Cantonese food. However, because we are so lucky to have Leila, who's a Sichuan girl studying here, cooking for us sometimes, I am now addicted to Sichuan cuisine, and I now love chili oil and Sichuan peppercorns, which are present in almost every Sichuan dish. I now never order the local version of mapo tofu which is totally unauthentic.

Unfortunately, the Sichuan peppercorns we get here are usually stale and they don't give that numbing effect or a strong flavor. I suggest you get it from friends who visit Sichuan, like I do. It's best to get whole peppercorns because you can grind them into powder or use them whole. I don't know if eating Sichuan peppercorns has any health advantages but Sichuan girls have excellent skin--smooth,fair and pink like white peaches. Honest.

I was flipping the TV channels the other day and the cooking program on making Sichuan chao shou was nearing the end, and gosh, the little dumplings looked so delicious especially with the black vinegar sauce. Leila came to my rescue by calling her mom back in Sichuan for this recipe:



Chao Shou ( Sichuan Wontons)
The Sauce:
1 T finely chopped fresh ginger*
1 T finely minced garlic
2 T light soy sauce
2 T dark soy sauce
5 T black vinegar
1/2 t fine sugar (optional)
1/2 T sesame oil
1/2 cup finely sliced spring onions*
2 T chili oil*
oil-fried Sichuan peppercorn powder or whole peppercorns*

Mix all the above ingredients together. Adjust to your liking by adding more soy sauces or vinegar etc. You may prefer to serve those ingredients with an asterisk * separately so that each person may add or omit them as he likes.

The Chao Shou:
1/2 kg shoulder pork, chopped finely#
1 egg
1 T very finely minced fresh ginger
1/2 T cornflour
1 T rice wine
1 t salt
1/4 t white pepper

optional: 1 cup finely sliced spring onions or Chinese chives

150g (or more) Sichuan preserved veg (ja cai), sliced, soaked 20 min & chopped

Buy or make: wonton wrappers, 10cm/4" square

Note: #Adding the 1 t salt (if you do this, omit the 1 t salt when seasoning the pork) to the pork when you are chopping it will make the pork sticky and the texture 'bouncier'.

1.Mix the above ingredients (except the wrappers) together in a bowl, churning the meat paste round and round in one direction (esp so if your pork is machine-ground) when you mix it so that after a while it will become sticky and develop a bounce. I like to use my bare hands because they mix better than a spoon or chopsticks. Chill.

2. Put a teaspoon of the chilled meat filling onto one corner of the square wonton wrapper, fold it over twice, turn over, then wet the left corner with a dab of water and pinch the left and right corners to seal. Repeat until all filling is wrapped up.

3. Boil a large pot of water and throw half the dumplings in, stirring them so that they won't stick together. Cover the pot, and when it boils, add a large cup of room-temp water to stop the boiling, cover the pot again. When it boils the second time, scoop the dumplings out with a slotted spoon. Divide among bowls. Cook the remaining dumplings.

4. Sprinkle spring onions and spoon sauce over the chao shou and serve hot.