Sweet Rice Wine Soup

This dish is one I’ve been craaaving for over a year now. With such high expectations and no recipe to follow, I was afraid I was setting myself up for disappointment, but the flavors couldn’t have turned out more right! I was instantly brought back to when I had my first bowl and I couldn’t be happier to share it with you!

Sweet Rice Wine Soup

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

6 cups water
2 tablespoons sugar
Mini glutinous rice balls (made from glutinous rice flour + water)
Half of the rice wine + rice mixture (recipe below)

Mini glutinous rice balls ^_^

Directions:

Depending on how many mini glutinous rice balls you want, mix together x amount of glutinous rice flour and gradually add water until a good dough consistency is reached. Pinch off small bits and roll into balls.
Meanwhile, bring water to a boil.
Toss mini balls into boiling water and after water returns to a boil, cook for 2 more minutes (balls should float to the top when ready).
Stir in rice wine + rice mixture, take of heat immediately, and serve!

How to Make Rice Wine

Yeast balls sold in packs of 2

Ingredients:

2 cups sweet rice (sticky rice)
¼ yeast ball (you can find these at the Asian supermarket)

Directions:

Cook the rice in a rice cooker with slightly less water than you normally would (you want to end up with slightly underdone rice).
Meanwhile, clean and dry a glass Tupperware really well (if there’s any oils or other contaminants, you may end up with moldy rice!) and pound the quarter yeast ball piece into a fine powder.
When rice is done cooking, let cool so that the yeast won’t die when added.
Transfer the rice into the cleaned Tupperware, add yeast powder, and mix until homogenous.
Compact the rice with a spatula and using a chopstick, create a well in the center of the compacted rice.
Cover with lid, wrap in a blanket (for good measure? Well it’s the traditional way to do it!), and store in a warm place (~80 F).
Let rice ferment and after 4 days, you’ll have rice wine!