Jiuniang (fermented sweet rice)

Riz fermenté sucré (jiuniang)

What it is

Cooked glutinous rice is inoculated with jiuqu, a pressed cake of mould, yeast and lactic bacteria, then held warm two or three days until the grains float in their own sweet liquor at one to two percent alcohol. It is the first step of rice wine, stopped early and eaten with a spoon instead of being pressed.

In the kitchen

Add it off the heat, or at a bare simmer for under a minute — boiling drives off the winey top note and leaves plain sweetness behind. A spoonful in a poached-fish broth does the work of a splash of wine without thinning it.

Goes with

Osmanthus Glutinous rice flour Ginger Egg Goji berry Chinese rock sugar

Same species

Akazu Arborio rice Rice paper (bánh tráng) Basmati rice Black glutinous rice Black rice

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