Red Hock Chew Wine Residue (Distiller's Grain, by product of Distillation process) 红糟

I am a Chinese, with ancestors from Hock Chew of Hokkien province of China, but born in Singapore. Since young, I very much like the cuisine my mum would cooked up using something what we call 红糟, (Chinese Hanyu Pinyin Hong2 Zao1), translate to English... well... no actually word but a description.

It is actually a distillation by product made from fermenting Chinese glutinous rice, Red Yeast Rice (红麴) and white yeast (the thing you put into the grains to make wine). The result would be wine and also the residue. We, The Hock Chew, uses the residue for many cuisines, one of which is 红糟鸡, chicken cooked in red yeast rice residue.

Here comes the most exciting part, to me :P

The ingredients

1. 5 whole chicken leg - cut into manageable pieces for eating
2. 10 sun dried mushroom - soak over night with warm water. Squeeze dry and remove stem
3. 4 thick sliced of ginger the size of a thumb.
4. 4 peeled garlic clove - crush or flatten it
5. 5 tbsp of Hock Chew red yeast rice residue
6. 5 tbsp of Chinese wine (I use 花雕酒)
7. 2 tsp of Sesame oil
8. 1 tbsp of sugar
9. 1 tbsp of chicken essence powder
10. Salt and light soya sauce to taste

To add some notes. Red yeast rice residue can be a very tricky ingredient for cooking. It is obtained by fermenting process, where the temperature and weather condition and age affects the taste, the amount and the quality. The product maybe a bit too sweet, too sour or bitter at times. The one I had was made by mom about 1 and a half year ago (maybe I will try to post the process of making it) and it is a little sweet. Most of the time, it is a bit sour and bitter (is that what you normally expect from wine? I am not a wine connoisseur, so I couldn't tell you. My taste is from the memories of eating my mom's creation)

The sugar, salt and light soya sauce listed here is what I use to balance the taste. You should find something that is a little sweet and slightly salted and slightly sour. In the end, it is really up to you. My dad and god-father would pour in almost 2 cups of the wine (花雕酒), well.... guys like it that way I guess...

Process:

1. Heat up your wok and about 4 tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot enough, throw in the 4 piece of ginger.

sautéed the ginger until it turn golden brown and dry.

2. Throw in the garlic, sautéed until aromatic.

3. Pour in the red yeast rice residue, stir-fry the mixture for a few seconds. Do not over fried this as it burns very easily.

4. Throw in the chicken, mix it well so that all the pieces are covered by the mixture.

5. Put in the mushroom. I put it in early as I want it to suck up all the good flavours.

6. At this point, you can put in the chicken powder, sugar, light soya sauce and salt. Taste it after every condiment you put in and see if the taste is suitable for you. Do this over medium fire.

7. If you want more gravy, you can put in some of the water from soaking the mushroom. Doing so, you will have to add in more of the condiments to balance the taste.

8. Simmer over low to medium heat for about 15 minutes.

9. End result. Put in the Chinese wine just before you bowl it. If you don't like too much of the alcohol taste, simmer it further for a minute or so.

The variation I cook this time round is more of a dry-gravy type. If you want the soupy style, just add chicken stock (be careful of the saltiness in commercial ready-pack chicken stock).

Other variations of the dish is using pork belly and bamboo shoots. If so, pork belly must be stir-fry before adding the red yeast rice residue. Mom ever cook duck version before, it's just nicer! Do note that duck version will be more oily as duck contains more fats. Remove it if you must.

Bon appétit!