Chinese Rice Wine for Postpartum Confinement Oh Yeah

Being ever industrious and especially so when pregnant I decided to try and at brewing my own moonshine for the noble use as confinement food after giving birth.

Only two things I need it for making rice wine: glutinous rice and yeast balls and I managed to snag them at the Chinese grocer on the strip District (find glutinous rice on Amazon and yeast balls on Ebay). 

Glutinous Rice

Yeast balls

More Yeast balls

I used four balls to one kilogram of rice. This makes enough steamed rice to fill two one gallon glass jars, which in turn yields about 1 liter of wine. The rice is soaked for at least four hours then steamed for an hour. I let it cool completely. Then I rinsed the rice And drained it. Using a mortar and pesto pulverized the yeast rolls. I sprinkled it all over the rice and mixed it thoroughly with a clean spoon. Then I poured it into clean glass jars. And covered it with gauze cloth. And I forgot it for two months.

Pulverized yeast mixed into the thoroughly cooled steamed rice. And sprinkled liberally
over the top of the rice. 

The result a super alcoholic sludge! Success! I filtered out the liquid and that it sit for a day in the fridge then poured the clear stuff into bottles. The rice lees sediment is saved for cooking. Yummmm.

All ready!

The filtered wine is left overnight in the fridge to settle and the clear wine is bottled. The rice lees is kept for cooking.

Home made Raw Almond Milk

I'm currently dairy free because I think my baby girl gets gassy whenever I drink cow milk. I tried some store bought almond milk (blue diamond) and didn't like it much although I could use it in a pinch. It's also expensive at $2.70 per carton of 32 oz (4 cups). 

Mmmm mmm good.

I had almonds in a 10 lb bulk pack ($55, from Amazon) and calculated the cost of making my own. 

The basic recipe calls for 1 cup (4 oz) almonds to two cups water. So four cups of milk would need 8 oz almonds ($2.50).  That works out to cost just as much as store bought.

I'd still make my own because it tastes better, isn't pasteurized, and doesn't have other stuff added to it like carrageen gum, sugar etc. 

Ok here's the recipe:

• Soak the almonds in a bowl of water overnight or up to two days. I like to soak longer as the almonds really plump up and yield creamier milk. 
• Drain, put in blender with 2 cups water and blend till smooth. 
• Filter with a cheesecloth, and squeeze as much as you can out. I save the almond meal and dehydrate it to use as flour in my baking. 
• Season with sugar and sea salt, to taste. 

Enjoy!

My favorite Vanilla Sunrise Gluten Free Cereal with Freshly made Almond Milk