Ginger Chicken with Homemade Wine

This is a Ginger Chicken with homemade rice wine that mostly consumed by a lady in confinement.  Chinese lady would be in a month of confinement when she gave birth to a baby.  During this month of confinement, she would be giving heaty food to eat.  Lots of ginger, sesame oil, homemade rice wine, red date tea, etc to help heal her body and to make her body strong.  I didn't get to eat the homemade rice wine while in both of my confinements but I did make sure I followed most of the traditional rules and ate lots of ginger and sesame oil.  You can say I am superstitious but I believed in natural Chinese medicine or tradition that passed down through generations.

After a bowl of this, you eat the ginger, wine stock and everything with the rice and you would be sweating afterward.  Wood-ear fungus is high in iron, protein, calcium, vitamins and said to prevent blood clotting and lower cholesterol.  The homemade glutinous rice wine has lots of benefits too.

Ingredients:

• 2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 1 rice bowl of shredded dried wood-ear fungus, soften it in warm water
• 1 big piece of ginger, thinly sliced
• Homemade rice wine, about 1 or 1 1/2 rice bowl
• Chinese brown sugar to taste (omit this if your rice wine is sweet)
• Soy sauce or salt to taste (soy sauce will give you dark stock, salt will give you a natural color)

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, add in some oil and a drop or two of sesame oil.  Add in ginger and stir fry until ginger is slightly brown and fragrant.  Add in chicken and stir-fry until chicken is almost cooked.

2.  Add in wood-ear fungus and stir fry until chicken is cooked.  Add in rice wine and let it boil.  When boiling, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 10 minutes.  Season to taste with soy sauce and brown sugar (if used).  Serve!