Okome Shortgrain Rice
547 days agoWell, this is for my next batch of rice wine. Instead of using Glutinous rice, I will be using this shortgrain rice. From my basic knowledge of rice, this kind of shortgrain rice is mainly use as very famous “Sushi” rice that we all love. Of course, this is not from Japan, it is from the United States. Not surprisingly, a lot of shortgrain rice we have in Singapore are imported from the States instead of Japan. It would be too expensive if it was from Japan. Heck, from what I know, Japan can’t even produce enough shortgrain rice for their own consumption, so I doubt we can find them here. One of the main reasons we use Glutinous rice to make rice wine is because it absorbs water well. The more water absorbed, the more liquid alcohol we get during fermentation. And yes, this shortgrain rice absorbs water well too. Yes, they are sticky when cooked, just like glutinous rice! Hence, I feel that it makes good sense to make rice wine from this type of rice. Oh, yes, Sake is made from Shortgrain rice as well. Can’t really go wrong when the Japanese are doing it themselves.
I bought this from Sheng Siong for about S$4.30 per 1kg pack. Glutinous rice is about half that price. Well, what can I say? The price difference is most likely due to the shortgrain rice being some sort of an exotic item and it is shipped all the way from the United States. Those glutinous rice we have in Singapore usually comes from Thailand. So of course it would be cheaper. One of the main difference between the glutinous rice and this shortgrain rice is well….the shortgrain rice grain is shorter than the glutinous rice. And fatter as well. And if you have eaten Sushi before, you will know that they taste different.
Bought 1 kg of this Okome Shortgrain Rice. Yes, product of USA. Lookie, they have Japanese wordings on the bag. This is called “marketing”!
Back of the 1kg Shortgrain rice bag.
The steps for cooking are nearly the same as normal rice, except for the 20 minute soak. For our normal rice, we seldom soak the rice much since we usually cook the rice in a rice cooker. However, when making the rice wine, I will be steaming the rice the same way as I would for Glutinous rice. We do need the rice to be firm instead of fluffy. Even if the rice is sticky, cooking the rice in a rice cooker, we will definitely find that the rice will somewhat become slightly fluffy. That is why we need to steam the rice.
Yes, steamed rice is nutritious! We are going to make rice wine from it! Wuhahahaha! Anyway, I believe that making rice wine from this type of rice, the taste should be different from the ones made from glutinous rice. If you have tried Sushi rice and glutinous rice before, surely you will notice that there are quite a significant difference in taste. I am pretty sure the rice wine will taste different as well. And I will be trying other types of rice to make my rice wine as well – Basmati Rice (from India/Pakistan), Jasmine Rice, Calrose Rice…..It would be very interesting to see what different flavours would result from the different types of rice used.
Ruou thuoc, or medicine wine, is a potent form of distilled rice alcohol infused with herbs, fruits, spices, and wild animals like snakes, geckos and seahorses. Many endangered species are poached for use in ruou thuoc, including bears for their bile, and dear for antlers, hooves and fetuses. Some herbal varieties are indeed tasty and may have health benefits derived from traditional Chinese medicine. I find others taste horrid and most certainly provide only superstition-induced placebo effects.
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