Banh chung – A symbol of traditional vietnamese tet cuisine

"Fat meat with red couplets,

Bamboo trees, firecrackers, green cakes".

Those are familiar couplets when talking about the most characteristic features of the Lunar New Year of Vietnamese people for many generations. In particular, the green chung cake has become a symbol of traditional cuisine every Tet of the whole nation and is known by friends all over the five continents.

For Vietnamese people, every time Tet comes to Spring, without banh chung in the house, it seems that the whole Tet atmosphere will be lacking. Every day adjacent to Tet, Vietnamese families have the custom of wrapping banh chung as if maintaining a long-standing traditional cultural beauty. In addition, Vietnamese people also wrap banh chung on the day of the death of the Hung King every year on the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month.

The meaning of banh chung on the traditional Tet day of Vietnamese people.

According to the concept from ancient times, the Vietnamese banh chung has a square shape, symbolizing the earth. Banh chung is made from white glutinous rice with a filling with mung beans, fatty meat, onions, pepper... All are wrapped in green dong leaves and fastened with flexible strands with a square, beautiful shape.

Vietnamese people have lived in a wet rice culture since ancient times, having to depend a lot on nature. Therefore, the cake in the tray on Tet has the meaning of expressing gratitude to heaven and earth for allowing favorable rain and wind to bring a good harvest and bring a prosperous life to the people. Not only that, Tet cakes are also displayed on the altar to show the filial piety of children and grandchildren to ancestors and the deceased. Banh chung is also a meaningful Tet gift that Vietnamese people often use to give to acquaintances and relatives or are displayed with other items on the five-fruit tray on Tet to show the mutuality in the five elements.

Seeing banh chung is seeing Tet! Therefore, Vietnamese people, no matter where they are or what they do, are always looking forward to returning to gather with their families, learn how to make banh chung together or sit in a boiling and hot pot of cake soup on the fire to feel the atmosphere of Tet rushing. Let's listen to old stories and inhale the illustrious aroma blended from dong leaves, glutinous rice with yellow flowers and the sweetness of green beans, the greasy taste of the meat filling in the chung cake – the taste of Tet cannot be mixed.

The origin of Banh Chung.

In the minds of Vietnamese people and passed down to future generations in history books, banh chung was born originating from the legend of Lang Lieu and associated with the story "Banh chung banh day".

Legend has it that in the life of King Hung the 6th, after destroying An's enemies, the country was peaceful, so the king wanted to pass the throne to his son, so he said: "Whoever brings offerings that match my will to offer the Fairy King to complete filial piety, I will pass on the throne to him".

While the other princes were racing to find delicious things and strange things, only Lang Lieu was worried because his mother died early and his family situation was difficult. After a night of dreaming, the god said, "There is nothing as precious as rice in heaven and earth, because rice is something that feeds people and can be eaten forever without getting bored, there is nothing more. If you pound glutinous rice wrapped in a circle to symbolize Heaven and take a leaf wrapped in a square shape to symbolize the Earth, in it as a delicious filling, imitating the shape of heaven and earth that encompasses all things, implying the nurturing grace of parents, then your heart will be happy. Your house will definitely be crowned”.

Lang Lieu woke up and did exactly as he was instructed in the dream. He chooses pure white glutinous grains, does not chip, washes them clean, then wraps them in a square shape with green leaves, puts the delicious filling in the middle, and boils them to symbolize the Earth, called banh chung. Again, take sticky rice and cook it to make cinnamon puree, kneading it into a circle to symbolize Heaven, called thick cake. On time, the King gathered his children together to bring offerings to the Ancestors. Among the many sea-flavored mountains, King Hung was only satisfied with Lang Lieu's banh chung and thick cakes and passed the throne to him. Since then, every year on the occasion of the death of King Hung and some Tet occasions, people make thick cakes to commemorate King Hung's merits and express their gratitude to the ancestors.

Ingredients for making delicious rice cakes on Tet: 1kg of yellow flower glutinous rice, 400g green beans, 400g pork belly, salt, seasonings, pepper, dong leaves or banana leaves, 1 bunch of bamboo or lat giang. The simplest way to make banh chung: To make a delicious banh chung, you need to be patient and a little skillful. From now on, we invite you to learn how to make this banh chung with me to cook a delicious pot of banh chung for the whole family on the upcoming big holiday!

Preparation and preparation. First, take the glutinous rice with yellow flowers, treat it clean, then put it in a pot of water, add about 4g of salt, stir well and let it soak for about 8 hours, after soaking, take it out and drain.

Soak the sticky rice with yellow flowers for about 8 hours.

• Pound the green beans finely, soak them in water for about 4 hours to soften and bloom, remove all the shells, take them out to drain. Add 4g of salt and mix well.

• Wash each dong leaf thoroughly on both sides and dry thoroughly, use a knife to remove the stalks along the spine of the leaf so that the leaves are less hard.

• Bamboo lats (lat giang) are soaked in water for about 8 hours, then tear the thin fibers about 0.5 cm.

• Wash and drain the pork belly. Then cut the meat into pieces of about 4cm, then marinate with 4g of seasoning, 1g of pepper for about 30 minutes to absorb evenly.

Cake Package.

• Arrange the lats into a rectangle and then place the mold on top. Arrange the folded dong leaf squarely into rectangular edges in the mold. When arranging dong leaves, the dark green sides of the leaves should be placed inside and the lighter green side outwards so that the dark side of the leaves is in contact with the rice, which will make the cake more beautiful green.

• Take a cup and scoop about 200g of glutinous rice into the mold, press and spread evenly so that the rice fills the bottom of the mold.

• Continue to spread 100g of mung beans evenly on top of the rice, put 1 piece of meat on top and then spread another 100g of mung beans on top to cover the meat (do not spread the mung beans all the way to the edge of the mold, but leave about 1.5 cm).

Put the layers of rice, mung beans, and meat filling into the mold one by one to wrap the cake.

• Then take another 200g of glutinous rice and spread it evenly around and cover the face of the mung bean. Use your hands to lightly press the rice at the corners and sides of the cake to compress the rice down.

• Next, fold the edges of the leaves, where the excess leaves are not needed, we use scissors to cut them out. Then the left hand keeps the leaf from unraveling, the right hand slowly takes out the mold and puts it on the left wrist. Switch your right hand to hold the leaf and remove the mold from your hand. Pull the ends of each cake tie together. Use a latte to tie the cake evenly and firmly, cut off the remaining lat for a beautiful and compact cake.

• Finally, you fold the edges of the leaves and use scissors to cut off the excess leaves neatly, slowly remove the leaves and keep the lats, then tie the lats firmly one by one.

Boil the cake

Arrange the banh chung in the pot evenly and pour water over the surface of the cake. Put it on a charcoal stove to boil continuously for about 8 hours. During the boiling process, you notice that the water runs out, add water in time to make the cake cook evenly and not burn. Finished banh chung after boiling Boil until the cake is cooked, then take it out and wash, clean the leaves in cold water to remove all the resin and drain.

Then arrange the cake in many layers and use a heavy object to press it up, press it to make the cake firmer, smoother and more beautiful, and then store it in the refrigerator or a dry, cool place. Above is an article sharing the origin and how to make delicious and attractive banh chung for Tet, inviting the whole family to make and enjoy the fruits to make a more prosperous, peaceful and happy Tet season.

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