Traditional Chinese Fermented Rice using Microwave (微波炉糯米酒酿)

微波炉糯米酒酿(Wei Bo Lu Gui Hua Jiu Niang)

Fermented sticky rice is really like a magic food, you can eat it as cool dessert in summer time, or make a soup with egg, Chinese dates to warm a cold winter night. I have published recipe to make fermented rice already, however, I always feel it is a challenge to cook the sticky rice, until this time, the overall process has been simplified quite a bit.

Microwave recipes are such convenient ways to avoid use of pots and pans.

For more fun cooking ideas, see Recipes by Category.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of sticky rice
• 1 wine yeast ball available in Chinese grocery stores)

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ferment Time: 2 to 7 days
Servings: 4

Cooking Steps

1. Get a large microwaveable container, I used a glass container with cover. Sanitize it using dish soap, wash thoroughly including the cover.
2. Measure 2 cups of sticky rice and 3 cups of water, add to the bowl.Stir evenly to mix the rice with water, do not let rice floating.

3. Use microwave high power to cook the rice for 5 to 6 minutes. Do not cover, adjust the time accordingly since every microwave is different.
4. Turn power to 5, microwave for 10 minutes. The purpose of using lower power is to simmer the rice and avoid spills.
5. Cover the rice, microwave for 5 minutes at power 5.
     Tip: the purpose of cooking with cover is to let the heat sanitize the cover as well. The same container will be used to make the fermented rice. I had a bad result once, I switched to use a non sanitized container, the rice went rotten eventually. If you need to switch container, make sure it is sanitized with heat to kill all the germs.

6. Keep the rice covered, let it cool down in room temperature, this might take a couple of hours, depending on the room temperature. Feel the outside of the container, it needs to feel like body temperature.
7.Get 1 ball of wine yeast, place it inside a small plastic bag, use rolling pin to roll it into fine powders.

8. Once the container cools down to body temperature, open the cover,  sprinkle the powder onto the rice surface evenly. Wear a disposable plastic glove to mix the rice with the powder evenly. Note that the rice can be very sticky, use hand palm to fold and press the rice to mix the rice slowly. If you like to use bare hand to mix the rice, make sure you wash your hand with soap first.

9. Use a spoon to dig a small round hole in the center of the rice.

9. Cover the container, place it inside a clean plastic bag, seal it.

10. Place the bag inside a couple of layers of comforter to keep the rice warm overnight. To maintain the temperature, heat a couple of water bottles with higher temperature than body temperature, place around the rice container. Note the water bottles  should not be too hot.

Tip: This process could take a few days, the rice will become fermented gradually, the wine smell will come out slowly. The process is typically faster in summer than in winter. Summer time, let it stay war, for 2 days, in winter, let it stay warm for 3 days.
11. The fermented rice will become very sweet and has pretty strong wine smell, in this case, put the rice in the fridge to slow down the fermenting process.