Jiu Niang / 酒酿
Written by
The first time I had jiu niang, which transalates into “fermented glutinous rice”, was on my first trip to China in early 2016. We were staying at Popo (婆婆) and Gonggong’s (公公) house for most of the trip. They would make breakfast for your mom and me each morning. One morning there was this soupy concoction that I instantly fell in love with. The main component is rice, which had been fermented. There were also several tangyuan (湯圓) and yuanzi (圓子) floating around in it. It was a sweet soup, something I’ve never encountered before. I had to know how to make it.
Popo had fermented the rice herself, and she learned the process from her father, who grew up in Sichuan where the dish originates from. I had a tiny Moleskine notepad and scribbled down notes while she walked me through all the steps required. It takes about three days to make the dish, so it was good that our trip was two weeks. It gave me plenty of time to learn and see the results.
At a high level, the process is:
- Steam sweet/sticky rice
- Combine rice and rice leaven in bowl
- Cover and place in a warm location for two days
- At all times, make sure your hands are clean so as not to contaminate the rice
When I got back to the states and got the courage to make it myself, I failed. When it was done fermenting after two days it was a solid mass of rice. I was completely baffled as to what happened, but I persevered and video-conferenced with my instructor (your Popo) back in China on what to change. We determined that after steaming the rice, I didn’t let it cool enough before I added the yeast and stirred, which resulted in it forming one giant ball of rice. On my second attempt, it was a success, and eating made me feel like I was back in China.
I’ve since made some adjustments to the way I was taught, but generally, it is still the same method your Popo taught me. I do the fermenting in the oven with the light on, whereas Popo, who doesn’t have the benefit of an oven, only really makes jiu niang in the winter when she can set it by the radiator to ferment.
Also, I discovered that the fermented rice by itself is really good. Sometimes I don’t go through the trouble to turn it into a soup. When I do make it as a soup, I just buy the tangyuan and yuanzi. I haven’t gotten the strength to make those yet. One time I wanted jiu niang but didn’t have the time to ferment the rice, so I picked up the fermented rice at the Chinese store. It wasn’t as good as the homemade version. Now when I see someone grabbing a jar of that at the store, I shake my head at them.
Jiu Niang / 酒酿
Equipment
- Large bowl (or fermenting container)
- Steaming pot (or vegetable steamer and large pot)
- Cloth (thin for steaming)
- Teapot (or small pot)
- Chopsticks
- Pyrex measuring cup (or small heat-proof cup, large enough for 2 cups of water)
- Towel
- Wire Rack (optional)
Ingredients
Fermented Rice
- 900 g Round Sticky Rice nuo mi (糯米)
- 8 g Rice Leaven jiuqu (酒曲)
- Water
Soup Ingredients
- Filled sticky rice balls tangyuan (湯圓)
- Small sticky rice balls yuanzi (圓子)
- Sweet Osmanthus syrup (optional) tang guihua (糖桂花)
Instructions
Day 1
Part I – Morning
- Wash hands thoroughly.
- In a dry, clean container, add 900g of round sticky rice (nuo mi 糯米).
- Wash the rice 3 times.
- Then fill the container with water, about one inch of water above rice.
- Soak for 6-10 hours.
Part II – 6-10 hours later
- Wash hands thoroughly.
- Drain excess water off of the rice.
- Add water to steamer pot. (Alternatively, if you don’t have a steamer pot, you could use a vegetable steamer inside of a regular pot)
- Wet a cloth and place it in a steamer. Place rice in wet cloth inside of steamer.
- Place lid on steamer and turn the stove on high. Once you see steam coming out of the pot, set the stove to medium and steam for 30 minutes. Make sure steamer doesn’t run out of water. Add more, if needed down the side of the pot. Don’t pour more water directly over rice.
- While the rice is steaming, boil 2-3 cups water in a teapot or another pot. (This water will be used to disinfect the fermenting bowl and tools, as well as provide some clean water to stir with the cooked rice.)
- Use the boiled water to clean the fermenting bowl and the chopsticks. Save some water in a measuring cup in the fridge. This water will be used to help cool down the cooked rice.
- If the rice leaven is stored in the fridge, get it out and let it come to room temperature.
Part III – 30 minutes later
- Wash hands
- After 30 minutes, remove rice in cloth from steamer. Place on a wire rack, if you have one available.
- Leave it to cool for 30-45 minutes, until you can touch with your hand and it feels close to body temperature.
Part IV – 30 – 45 minutes later
- Wash hands
- Transfer the rice back to the container you cleaned in Part II.
- Add a little cool water that you had boiled to the rice if it is still warm.
- Add 1/2 bag of the rice leaven, and stir with chopsticks. Add more water as needed.
- Once thoroughly mixed, pack and compact rice with chopsticks.
- Once compacted, create a 1/2 dollar size hole in the middle.
- Sprinkle rest of rice leaven in hole and on top of the rice.
- Cover with cling wrap
- Wrap entire bowl in towel, and place in oven with light on. The oven light provides enough heat to ferment the rice.
Day 3
Part V
- 48 hours later, it should be ready to go. You should see liquid in the hole in the middle, and it should smell sweet.
- If there is black fuzz on top, that is mold, the rice got contaminated at some time in the process. Throw it out and do not eat it.
At this point, you could just eat the fermented rice, but if you want to turn it into a soup, here are the additional instructions:
- Add sticky rice balls to a small pot. (This is personal preference, I usually add about 3-4 of the tangyuan and about ¼ cup of the smaller yuanzi per person)
- Add water to cover rice balls by 1 inch and boil on high.
- Once all the balls start to float on the surface they are cooked. The bigger tangyuan balls will be the last to float.
- Remove pot from stove and pour off some of excess water. (about ½ of the water)
- Add fermented rice to the water till your desired consistency.
- Add about 1 tsp per person of Sweet Osmanthus syrup (if using)
- Return pot to stove and let cook until it just starts to boil again. Should only be a few seconds.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and serve hot.
