Monday, June 9, 2008

Chicken Wine Soup

Thought the rainy season had passed but it has been so wet and cold the last two days that it got me thinking of the bottle of rice wine from Terri. What could be better than wong ziu gai (rice wine chicken) at this time? 
During confinement, twice a day I would have the wine soup consisting of only kampong chicken, old ginger (loads of it), sesame oil and wine (not even water to dilute the wine a little).  That worked out to almost 2 bottles of rice wine a day. It is a wonder I didn't turn alcoholic after 5 confinements and how did I manage to stay sober during the 30 days of imprisonment? Or maybe I wasn't after all, happy hour for a whole month! That certainly helped to keep the post-natal depression at bay.
This version is very much toned down. I opted for the Cantonese-style with black fungus and goji but omitted the mushroom as I find it overpowering (I like to taste the wine in my soup). 

1 kampong chicken, cleaned and chopped into pieces
2 thumb size old ginger root, wash off grits and flattened with side of chopper
1/2 cup black fungus, washed and soaked 
2 T goji (wolfberries), washed
3-4 cups rice wine
1 T sesame oil
3-4 cups water

Heat sesame oil in wok, fry ginger until fragrant and add chicken. 
Stir fry chicken pieces until color changed and aromatic, add in black fungus and water. 
Bring to boil, lower heat to simmer for about 15 minutes or until chicken meat is tender. 
Add in the rice wine, bring to boil and lastly, stir in the goji.
Dish out and enjoy with white rice and a simple stir-fried veg.

Note: The water and wine ratio is entirely flexible and so is the soupiness. My family like to drink the soup more than eat the meat and as there are still a few minors around I have to watered down the alcoholic content to a more legally acceptable level :-p. 
I still prefer mine 100% rice wine...  

7 comments:

Precious Pea said...

This is our favourite too and we have a cabinet stocked up with rice wine. So from time to time, we will buy some kampung chicken wings to cook it as snack/supper/teatime. YUMMY!

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

*gasps* love this, anytime night or day! i was just going post on this too:)

a feast, everyday said...

pp, u know u can have this for 30 days straight 3x a day?... :-p

terri, yeah especially when d wine is so intoxicatingly sweet. tq 4 d wine. i need to place my order for more.

irenebui said...

Oh yes, I love wong-jiu-kai....
much better than the kacang ma chicken soup I tasted in Kuching, probably b'coz I'm not used to the taste but my Kuching colleagues all enjoyed their kacang ma. I was told that's what they take during confinement.

a feast, everyday said...

Never tasted kacang ma, like most of kuching food though but i know i am always partial to our wong jui gai...

Anonymous said...

A toast to all Chicken Wine Soup lovers, if ever there was a reason to be confined, this would be it!

hehehe.

Cheers//

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

i tried kacang ma a few months back n it was WEIRD!