A 2-in-1 Post - Chicken with Red Rice Wine Yeast

 

My dear hubby is a Foochow, I am a Cantonese (the Foochows and Cantonese people are different dialect groups of ethnic Chinese whose early ancestors migrated to Malaysia).  However, in all our years of marriage, he has never requested me to cook any Foochow dishes.


As i think back, I realised I have never cooked anything even remotely  close to Foochow food.  Yes, I have been quite naughty.  I only cook the food I like, and simply assume that hubs would like it too. :p.  


So, as we notch up our 10th year of marriage this December, i thought it's about time i get my wok dirty with some classic Foochow dishes.  But out of curiousity, i asked hubby the other day why he has never requested for any Foochow dishes.  His reply was classic - "You know how to cook Foochow food meh?" That's the legal eagle in him.  Answer a question with another question.

 

For my non Malaysian readers, that is a very colloquial conversational sentence (tinged with a slight dose of sarcastic humour) which means "that's because you do not know how to cook any."  Eeeks.  But what made me heave a big sigh of relief was not what he said, but what he didn't say.  Thankfully he didn't follow up with a "so can you learn to cook some from now on?"  Whew!


Like they say, if you force someone to do something, chances are the person will not want to do it.  Better to back off and let time/nature/prayer? takes its course.  So now, ten years on, I am finally game enough to cook something closer to home for dear hubs (maybe he has been secretly praying :P).  Better late than never yes? :)


Chicken with Red Rice Wine is probably the most well known Foochow dish.  I am not a fan of rice wine based dishes, but over the years, have grown to acquire a taste for this.  It is also very much a comfort food for Foodchows, served both at home as a regular family meal as well as at special occassions.  


My MIL (who else!) gave me a jar of gloriously blood red homemade rice wine yeast, together with a bottle of red rice wine, sourced from the Foochow heartland of a Foochow home in Ayer Tawar.  I called this post a 2-in-1 simply because i made extra, and cooked the dish firstly in a semi-dry braised style with the red yeast only, and then on the next day "evolved" it into a mee suah with soup.  Kill two birds with one stone. 

 

The red rice wine yeast

Red rice wine.  Almost finished, need to ask MIL to get me 
another bottle. Most homemade ones will recycle the old soy
sauce bottles to keep this. 

I first did the braised version because I wanted to get my son to try this, so a non-alcohol version would be more palatable for him.  Surprisingly he liked it, so i quickly fed him a good portion of rice drenched with some red goodness before he changed his mind!

The next day I added the rice wine into the dish and made it into a broth with some mee suah.  I also threw in some wood ears for extra nutrients (good for reducing cholesterol).  Hubs and I polished it off as a hearty lunch. 

2-in-1: Braised Chicken with Red Rice Wine Yeast, then Mee Suah with Red Rice Wine Broth


A. Braised Chicken with Red Rice Wine Yeast
Serves 4 - 5

• 700g chicken legs, skin off, rinsed, pat dry and cut into chunks
• 3 pieces of black fungus, soaked and cut into slices
• 5 dried chinese mushroom, soaked, discard the stem and cut into slices
• Marinade :
• 1 1/2 tblspn of red rice wine yeast
• 1 tsp of finely grated ginger (and juice)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• Generous pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 tblsp of sesame oil
• 1/2 tblsp of normal cooking oil
• 5 slices of ginger, finely slided
• 2 fat pips of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tblsp of sugar
• Dash of soy sauce

1.  Marinade the chicken pieces with all the ingredients and set aside for 1 hour.

2.  Heat the sesame oil and cooking oil together until very hot, and fry the ginger slices and garlic until golden brown and turning crispy.

3.  Add in the chicken meat with the marinade and fry on high heat until the meat loses its pinkish colour.  Add in the black fungus and mushroom, and toss until evenly coated.

4.  Add in 1 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Turn down the fire and let simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occassionally to prevent the meat from sticking at the bottom.

5.  Season with sugar, a dash of soy sauce and additional salt if necessary.  The gravy should be on the sweet side, with a savoury aftertaste.  Serve with hot steam rice. 

B.  Mee Suah with Chicken and Red Rice Wine Broth 
Serves 2

• 2 cups of leftover Braised Chicken with Red Rice Wine Yeast
• 1/2 cup red rice wine
• 2 cups of water
• 1/2 tsp chicken stock powder
• Additional sugar and salt
• 2 big spirals of dried mee suah

1.  Heat up the remaining braised chicken in a deep pot or casserole.

2.  Add in the rice wine, water, sugar and salt.  Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 3 minutes.

3.  Adjust the taste.  The broth should be on the sweet side.  Add additional rice wine if you like it on the strong side.  Depending on your preferred level of saltiness, make it just a tad less salty as the mee suah is already salty and will add to the saltiness of the broth.

4.  To cook the mee suah, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil.  Drop the dried mee suah into the hot water and keep stirring to loosen the strands.  Test for doneness by biting a short strand. The texture should feel just soft, do not overcook. Drain and serve onto a bowl and pour the broth and meat over it.  Serve immediately. Do not let the mee sit in the broth as it will soaked up all the broth and become one big sodden lump.

The small bowl for me..

 

..and the big bowl for the Foochow man

I am submitting this to the Malaysian Food Fest, Sarawak month,

hosted by Sharon of Feats of Feasts