This ingredient makes every dish taste authentically Chinese
What makes a dish taste typically Chinese, rather than Thai or Japanese? Very often, it’s an ingredient you can buy at the Asian supermarket for a few euros: Shaoxing rice wine.
Since I cook almost exclusively Asian food, and especially Chinese food, friends regularly ask me what they should buy at the Asian supermarket. Or whether I can come along sometime to help them put together an Asian starter pack, with all the basic sauces you really need to have at home. Well, I can’t do that. The fact that I use a lot of black vinegar and Sichuanese chili paste doesn’t mean you will too. Recently, a friend asked me a much better question: what should I keep at home to make all my food taste Chinese? The answer is Shaoxing rice wine.
Shaoxing rice wine
The rice wine comes from the Chinese city of Shaoxing, hence the name, and its flavor is somewhat comparable to sherry. If you get a good-quality one, you can simply drink it too. I’ve just never bought that kind for my own kitchen; I always go for the cheap stuff (at my Asian supermarket, you can get a one-liter bottle for €1.90). That’s more than enough to give dishes extra flavor. You can also find Shaoxing at many supermarkets.
Cooking with Shaoxing
You’re probably wondering how to use it now. You can really do anything with it. For example, mix it with a little cornstarch and, if desired, some soy sauce or sesame oil for a marinade for chicken (tip: try making Chongqing fried chicken). A tablespoon or two to finish your fried rice or stir-fried vegetables can’t hurt either. I also always add a splash to my scrambled eggs, along with some salt. Cook gently and serve with fried tomatoes and white rice, and you have the quick and healthy weeknight meal of your dreams. Also delicious with steamed eggs! And it’s widely used outside China too, as in this Taiwanese ragù.
Perfect with dumplings
For anyone who sometimes makes wontons (mmm: wontons with chili oil) or dumplings themselves, or would like to: go ahead and add it to the ground-meat filling, as with these dumplings with a crispy skirt. It’s also delicious to braise meat in larger quantities of rice wine, as with this dongpo pork or drunken chicken. You guessed it: the chicken is drunk because it’s swimming in huge quantities of Shaoxing rice wine. In that last dish, the wine really takes center stage and its flavor comes through beautifully. So it’s a fun one to try once you’ve bought your first bottle!
Also read:
- This is the very best dipping sauce for dumplings
- The perfect fried rice, step by step
- The best chili oil is homemade
