Hi guys, how are you today? It's been a long time since I've posted anything on Hive, I'm really sad about it, but because I have to spend time planning everything at the beginning of the year, I can't do anything else. Today, after arranging everything, I try to take the rare free time of the day to share with you the wonderful things I did during the traditional Vietnamese New Year.
Today I would like to introduce to you Tet cake - a traditional dish indispensable on the dinner table during Tet holiday in Vietnam.
Seeing Tet cake is seeing Tettttttt!!!
Every Tet holiday, every house has a pot of Tet cake. Perhaps Tet cake is not only a typical dish of Tet holiday but also a taste of the culture and atmosphere that is familiar and associated with every Vietnamese since childhood. I like the cozy atmosphere when the whole family gathers together and wraps delicious Chung cakes filled with happiness.
The custom of wrapping Tet cake on Tet has become a traditional cultural feature of the Vietnamese nation, passed down through generations of Vietnamese people, showing the beauty of wet rice civilization. On each Tet occasion, people and families make banh Chung and banh Tet to celebrate Tet and offer the cake to the ancestors' altar.
My family is also a traditional family, so wrapping banh chung and banh tet is also an indispensable thing. I miss the time when I was a kid, looking forward to Tet to come to school, get lucky money, get my parents to buy new clothes for Tet, relatives, go to celebrate Tet. I remember when my grandfather was alive, he was very skillful, he could do anything. He could fix everything from patching bicycle tires to knitting baskets, making toys out of bamboo, or building tables and chairs... And especially he made delicious banh chung 😚. During my childhood years, whenever Tet came, I always helped him fold the leaves and watched my grandfather wrap each banh chung skillfully, listening to him tell stories. However, now it's just a memory because my grandfather passed away 12 years ago when I was only in 5th grade. No one in my family knows how to pack Tet cake, so since my grandfather passed away, I've been in charge of it because I learned how to do it from my grandfather.
How to make Tet cake
Each family's Tet cake will have a different taste, some people like more fillings, some people like less, some people like lean meat, some people like fatty meat,... etc and…etc. My family loves the vegetarian Chung cake with only glutinous rice and green beans. This is also the reason why the cake that I make can be preserved for a long time and eat without getting bored.
A few tips to make Banh Chung - Banh Tet delicious
- Use dong or banana leaves: Wash the wrapping leaves thoroughly with a large basin of water under the tap.
- Green beans: After being cooked, season with a little salt, pepper, fat/oil, and then gently mash with a spatula/ladle to blend the beans…. I can smell TET now.
- Sticky rice: Glutinous rice has been cleaned by my mother many times with clean water and soaked with a little salt since the night before.
- Cooking time: After wrapping the cake, boil it for 12 hours with a wood stove. After 12 hours of boiling the cake, take it out and wash it quickly with clean water, then arrange it neatly and compress it . This is the secret to making Tet cakes after cooking will be preserved longer, after shaping, you hang the cakes in a cool and dry place.
A special thing in my house every time I pack banh tet is that I don't need to buy dong leaves, dong leaves are available at my house, this dust has been used to wrap my family's banh tet since my grandfather was alive, it must be it. existed here my age or many years older. Fresh dong leaves will be selected to wrap the cake.
How to Pack Tet Cake
A family usually only packs about 5kg of sticky rice, which is enough for Tet holidays, but because my parents and grandmother both love to eat Tet cake, this year my family packed nearly 12kg of sticky rice, which is quite a lot. And I did it alone, so it took me almost an afternoon to finish packing.
Ingredients for wrapping vegetarian Tet cake:
- Sticky rice - about 12kg
- 1kg of peeled green beans
- Cooking oil.
- Purple onion
- Seasoning: salt, pepper, mushroom seasoning powder
Tools for wrapping vegetarian Tet cake:
- Dong leaves: 100 leaves
- Bamboo strip
- A scissors
- A bowl
If you do not have dong leaves, you can use banana leaves instead, but the cake will not have the beautiful green color like wrapping with dong leaves. Sticky rice will make the cake delicious, flexible and soft. Bamboo strips are ropes made from fresh bamboo tubes, about 70-90cm in length, which can be purchased at Tet markets.
How to pack cake
- Step 1:
- Wash the glutinous rice, soak it in clean water for about 8 hours, then take it out and let it drain. Then mix glutinous rice with 3 teaspoons of salt + 1 teaspoon of mushroom seasoning powder.
- Step 2:
Wash the green beans and put them in a pot to cook on medium heat. When the water boils, lower the heat to low, cover the pot and cook for another 20 minutes. When the beans are soft, turn off the heat. Put the beans in a bowl, add 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon pepper, and then use a spoon to mash the beans. Divide the green beans into equal portions and roll them up.
Wash the dong leaves and dry.
My mother somehow miraculously removed the backbone of the dong leaves to make it easier for me to wrap the cake, I've learned how to do it but it's always wrong 😅
- Step 3:
- Spread the leaves on a flat surface (put the dark side on), 2 large leaves below and 1 medium leaf in the middle. Put 1 cup of soaked glutinous rice on the leaves and spread evenly, then add green bean paste and finally add a layer of sticky rice to cover. Wrap the cake slowly and gently, and at the same time keep the leaves from spreading and squeeze the cake body into a round and long shape, tied with bamboo strips. Finally, fold the leaves at both ends and shape into a long and round shape, then use bamboo trips to tie the cake tightly.
- Step 4:
- Use the excess wrapped dong leaves to line the bottom of the pot, then place each Tet cake in and fill the pot with water and cook for about 12 hours.
Cooking banh tet is also quite a feat, I cooked this cake for 12 hours on high heat. I will have to turn the cake every 6 hours, this means when I put the cake in the pot I will have to arrange the cake evenly and after 6 hours I will remove the layer of cake, arrange the cakes on top also on the bottom of the pot. and let the bottom cakes be brought to the top, then fill with water and cook for another 6 hours, so the cake will be cooked evenly and more delicious.
I packed a lot of banh chung and banh tet and this year I had to make it by myself so it took about 4 hours to finish 12kg of sticky rice, and the result is 24 beautiful and delicious cakes. Perhaps with other families, they will choose to go to the market to buy cakes to save time, but I told my mother that I want to pack banh tet to preserve the traditional beauty of Vietnamese New Year and also to Recalling the memories with Grandpa.
A low quality photo taken while I was watching over my pot of banh tet but filled with so much happiness.
Banh tet dish is not simply an ordinary dish, but it also contains many precious memories I have with my family members, it is also created by the efforts and hard work of my mother.
If you have the opportunity to come to Vietnam on Tet holiday, you should try this traditional cake.
Thank you for reading the article. Have a nice day❤
