Strawberry Sweet Rice Wine (Strawberry Jiu Niang)
Homemade with fresh strawberries and sweet rice, this refreshing and mild Strawberry Sweet Rice Wine has such a balanced taste of sweetness and acidity. At the moment when I uncovered my strawberry Jiu Niang, a bumblebee was attracted by its fruity scent and landed on my balcony. What's more, this strawberry sweet rice wine is low in alcohol level (2.5% ~ 3.5%) and high in nutrients and beneficial bacteria!
Equipment
- Steamer Cookware
- Glass food storage container
- Cheesecloth (Or parchment paper)
- Kitchen scale
Ingredients
- 500 g sweet rice (also known as glutinous rice)
- 200 g strawberries (about 7 medium-size strawberries)
- 2 g rice wine starter (Chinese wine yeast balls) (can be found on Amazon)
- 250 g cold water (boiled and let cool to room temperature, or bottled water. Do not use tap water here!)
Instructions
- Wash 500g sweet rice for 3 to 4 times, until the water becomes clear. Soak the sweet rice in cold water overnight.
- The next day, the soaked rice grains should be easily crushed with fingers. Drain the water.
- Use a large pot to boil the glass food storage container for 5 minutes to kill the germs. Or bake the glass food storage container at 275 °F (135 °C) for 20 minutes. Set aside and let cool.
- Line a steamer with cheese cloth (or parchment paper), pour the soaked sweet rice over the cheese cloth.
- Poke some holes into the rice with your index finger, so that it can be cooked more quickly and evenly. Steam the sweet rice over high heat for 40 minutes.
- Wash about 7 strawberries, remove leaves and stems (you will get about 200g strawberry fruit), cut each strawberry into halves.
- After the sweet rice has been steamed for 40 minutes, turn off the heat, open the lid of the steamer, place the strawberries over the sweet rice.
- Put the lid on, turn on the heat, steam the strawberries with the sweet rice over high heat for 5 more minutes.
- Transfer steamed sweet rice and strawberries to the sterilized glass container. Add 250g cold water to the sweet rice, mix well with a rice paddle. Set aside and let cool.
- Grind a Chinese wine yeast ball into powder. Weight 2 grams of the yeast powder (about ¼ of a yeast ball).
- Once the steamed sweet rice is cooled to 30 °C – 35 °C (85 °F – 95 °F. If you do not have a food thermometer, you can touch the rice with double-washed clean hands, it should feel similar to your body temperature), add the yeast powder to the sweet rice, mix until well combined.
- Press the sweet rice firmly and evenly, dig a hole in the middle.
- Sprinkle a tiny bit of yeast powder into the hole.
- Tightly cover the glass container with 2 layers of plastic food wrap. Put the lid on if there is one.
- Place the sweet rice in a warm and dark place to ferment. You can set your oven at 30 °C ( (85 °F ). Traditionally, Chinese elders would just cover the container with a blanket to keep it warm.
- The plastic wrap should be bloating if you have tightly sealed the container. Check the fermentation process daily. Once the hole in the middle is at least 80% filled with liquid, the strawberry sweet fermented rice is done.
- Remove the plastic wrap, always use a clean ladle to get the wine and the sweet fermented rice. Can be served either cold (cool in the fridge/ add ice cubes) or hot (boil with other ingredients, such as poached egg).