How To Make Rice Wine

Hi everyone, welcome to souped up recipes. I'm Mandy. Today I'm going to show you how to make fermented sweet rice wine in five minutes. Then I will share a few ways to enjoy it. Add half cup of glutenous rice into a mason jar or any other heatproof and leakproof containers. Rinse it with clean water for a few times. Quick question, is glutenous rice gluten-free? Hit the like button if you know the answer. Drain the rice completely, then soak it with three quarter cups of water for one hour so the grains have enough time to absorb the moisture and they will cook evenly. A note here, you should leave at least half of the jar empty after you fill the water because the rice will grow in volume once cooked. Steam the rice with the jar for 40 minutes but without the lid unless you want the jar to explode. However, do put the lid, a small bowl, and a spoon in the steamer so you can sanitize them as you are steaming. If you don't sanitize the lid, your glutenous rice wine will grow a layer of unedible black mycelium, like that. Once done, don't open the lid, just turn off the heat and let this whole pot to cool completely. This is going to take a few hours depending on your room temperature. Use the sanitized bowl to dissolve the distiller's yeast with distilled water. If you don't have distilled water, you can boil some tap water, then cool it down completely. Don't use hot water or else you will kill the yeast. Pour the yeast water into the rice, put on the lid, and twist it all the way. Give it a nice swirl, then untwist it just a tiny bit to allow micro air to go in and out. Let it ferment for two to three days depending on your room temperature, then you will get a jar of sweet rice wine. I know you're probably thinking, how is that five minutes? Well, I mean the prepping takes about five minutes, the rest is just waiting time. However, this recipe is still very very easy. I do have a few notes that I want to share so you can be an expert. First, let me explain the science behind the sweet rice wine fermenting. It's basically a process of encouraging the growth of distiller's yeast and suppressing the bad bacteria. That's why you want to sanitize everything. During the first three days, the distiller's yeast will take the starch and turn it into glucose. This process needs oxygen, that's why you don't want to tighten the lid completely so you can get your rice wine sweet and syrupy. After three days, the distiller's yeast will take the glucose and turn it into alcohol. This process does not need oxygen or else your wine will turn sour. However, I don't want my sweet rice wine to taste like alcohol, so I will tighten the lid on the third day and stick it into the fridge to slow down the activity. That way it will stay good for three months. If you do want to build up the alcohol content, you can tighten the lid on the third day but leave it at room temperature for another week or two so you can get something sweet but with a hint of alcohol. Once you're happy with the taste, you can stick it into the fridge and it will also stay good for three months. This is how it looks on the third day. The rice floats up and leaves a slightly cloudy liquid at the bottom. That's how you can tell it's done. Can you use different grains other than glutenous rice? So far I have tried with jasmine rice. It came out with the same sweetness. The fragrance is strong but slightly different, although the texture of the grains is a lot more mushy. I would say jasmine rice is a great option for you to try if you don't have access to the glutenous rice. I also tried with purple glutenous rice. The taste came out less sweet. The fragrance is mild but I love the color. It looks so beautiful. Technically, any grains that have a high starch content will work. You can play around with whatever you want but don't expect good results all the time because I have tried with jobs tears. It was awful. The taste was fine but the smell is like dirty clothes that has been soaked for days. It was so bad that I have to throw it out. This small yeast envelope is enough to ferment two kilograms of glutenous rice, which is 20 of these mason jars. You could use bigger jars if you have a bigger steamer, otherwise it won't fit in there. However, every brand of yeast are different. You have to read the instructions on the package. How is my method better than the traditional way? When my grandmom is making this, she will steam the rice in a bamboo steamer, sanitize the jars separately, then transfer the into the jars, which is a process that will introduce a lot of bacteria. You have to sanitize your hand and any tools that will make contact with the rice. It's just so annoying. My method is smart because the rice is in the jar already and you are sanitizing the tools as you are cooking the rice, which lowers the chance of failure. There are many ways to enjoy sweet rice wine. If you want to be rustic, you can just drink it straight out of the jar. When I was little, I often drank it as a syrup because it's just so sweet. Don't get confused with the rice cooking wine because the taste is just completely different. This is so sweet that it tastes like Japanese mirin. I often use it as a replacement to make teriyaki. Today, I'm going to use it to make an old school poached eggs, which is something that I ate for my birthday when I was a little kid. Burn four cups of water to a simmer. Turn off the heat. Crack in however many eggs you like. Cook them to the desired doneness. I poached them for two minutes, which is a perfect soft yolk. I'm going to fish the eggs out so I don't overcook them. Open a jar of the sweet rice wine that you made. Loosen up the grains before you pour it in. Bring it back to a simmer. Give it a taste and adjust the sweetness to your taste by adding some sugar. I'm using brown sugar, but any sugar will work. Add some cornstarch water to thicken the soup. Last, throw in some gogi berries. Pour this creamy soup over the poached eggs. I used to wake up with this on my birthday instead of getting a cake, so I am very attached to the flavor. It's sweet, but not like regular sugar sweet because it got that slight fermented taste. The rice fragrance makes it so homey and comfortable. My mom used to toss in a handful of popped rice, which is something similar to popcorn, to elevate the texture. I don't have that today, so I'm not adding it, but it's still very, very delicious. So good. Western people like to put poached eggs on a toast. You have to try it in the sweet rice wine. It's just delicious. I hope you give this a try soon. As always, you can click the link in the description and find the printable recipe. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time. Bye!