Chicken Wine Mee Suah

We didn't have time to taste the chicken wine mee suah in Sibu. Really wanted to, as I was told the Foochow's wine is different from the rice wine we used here in Sabah. I have tried those from Ipoh which was cooked in red rice wine and they were very good even though kind of fury looking with the redness of the wine. Why is the rice wine red? 

Anyway, I did bring back some good, handmade (L insisted) mee suah from Sibu and I hand-carried them personally as they were a delicate lot.

I decided to cook this for my 5-minus-one (Mee is the one in the States) sisters on our Thursday breakfast date. We have these breakfast dates every Thursday come rain or shine for the past 18 years. It started after our dad passed away, as dad and mum enjoyed going for dim sum almost everyday, we wanted to make sure mum get to go out for breakfast at least once a week with her daughters. So this routine/ritual was formed and it is still continuing even long after my mum left the scene. It is one highlight of the week for all of us - to catch up with one another, to share our views and opinions on every topics (food, travel, health and most recently, politics) under the sun. Most times everyone is talking and no one listening... :D Sometimes when time permit, the breakfast would extend to shopping (food, crockery, furniture, clothings...) 

The noodle is so exquisitely smooth, silky and light but still retains a definite bite. Heavenly... 

For the chicken wine recipe, click here. I omitted the mushrooms, wolfberries and black fungus here, just wanted to keep the soup as unclustered as possible to better taste the mee suah. 

To cook the mee suah noodle:

~Boil a large pot of water (~4L) for 4-5 servings of the noodle (usually about 4 bundles).

~By the side get ready a big basin of cooked cold water. 

~When water boils, pop the noodles in, stir to keep the noodles from sticking.

~It takes less than a minute to cook. 

~Lift the noodles from the boiling water and drop them in the cold water. This will stop the noodles from cooking any further. 

~Drain and separate into serving bowls. 

~Pour boiling wine soup onto the noodles and serve hot.   

I have Agnes to thank for this almost zero oil content chicken wine soup. I find even the kampong chickens these days are quite fat. Apparently many kampong chicken rearers are using chicken feeds to fatten them up faster!

With this ingenious piece of tool, oil is filtered off from soups effortlessly. It has an extremely fine gauze as sieve which only allows water to pass through.

Tilted at an angle, it makes the job a piece of cake. 

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...