Chicken with red wine lees

                              

When ttc gave me a jar of his home-made red wine lees (sediment from wine fermentation), I was not too appreciative. I had eaten the Hakka/ Hockchew specialty dish of chicken stewed with this ingredient before and found it off-puttingly pungent, harsh and generally bad-tasting. But my friend fermented the lees himself, a tedious and notoriously fickle process that comes with not a few arcane superstitions. If not done right, the lees will spoil or taste foul. This batch it seemed was OK. He was convinced that I will like it, so I took it home, and major sceptic that I was, soon forgot about it until a few days ago when I was clearing the fridge. As ttc was coming to dinner that evening, I asked the domestic to check with him again how to use the lees, as it would be a little embarrassing for me to admit that I had clean forgotten his intructions.

Just to make sure we wouldn't forget the recipe in a hurry, we made the dish for Sunday lunch and, well, good golly ms molly, it turned out really sedap. Not in the least pungent, the lees imparted a distinctly subtle but full-bodied winey flavour which permeated deeply into the chicken. The stewing liquid made a thick, super-shiok umamilicious gravy that was insanely good with rice. Afterwards the body felt tipsy relaxed and warm, an unexpected but very pleasant surprise indeed.

There is about half a jar of lees left, enough to make another round. Can't wait....

Chicken with Red Wine Lees

1/2 Chicken- cut into pieces

Red wine lees

Knob of ginger- julliened

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 cup water

1. Marinate the chicken with the ~ 3 tbsp red wine lees for 30 minutes.

2. Fry the ginger slices till fragrant.

3. Add the chicken with its marinade to the ginger and cook till the chicken is lightly browned.

4. Add the oyster sauce and water, cook until the sauce is thickened and the chicken cooks through.

Comments

[TTC]

Glad you like it. Basically if using the red rice alone, it will be much more pungent ( and musty), I mixed red rice with glutinous rice, so that it will be less pungent and sweeter. Sorry, I have forgotten to ask you to also include some spring onion when stir frying the ginger. It will also gives it a little scallion aroma.

[spots]

is this ang chao chicken? I love that... any tips on where to buy red fermented paste that is good and not too pungent ? or how to mix a store bought paste with additional stuff so that it is not too pungent ?

[umami]

TTC, thanks again, and next time we will add spring onions too.

spots, I think it is, but I can't answer your other questions- maybe you can try adding sweet wine or oyster sauce to tone down the pungency?

[slurp!]

hmmm ... it didn't look too reddish? my grandpa (as he is foochow)used to make these and it look blood red & strong with alcohol. never try having them as i guess i was too young then :P

i wonder if this will goes well if luo han chai?

[eatzycath]

I always order this whenever I can find it on the menu in a chinese restaurant - looks delicious! Any chance of your friend ttc sharing the recipe for making the red wine lees?? [crossing my fingers after I finish posting this comment]

[dachsie]

i like mine with a splash of rice wine!

Gives everyone at the table rosy cheeks. :D

[TTC]

I used a higher proportion of glutinous rice as compared to the red rice. Also I added more water to the mixture for fermenting ( to make glutionous wine lees, you do not add water but for ang cho, you do). With this method, you do not get too pungent the wine lees, and you get more wine too.

[winelearner]

Hi Umami, I am making this at home too. I like this very much, and it is one of my favourite dish.

TTC, I must pass some of my home made ang chow and would be happy to hear your feedback.

Cheers!

Winelearner