Western banh tet - Full of spring flavor

For people in the West, seeing banh tet means seeing Tet. Western banh tet not only brings a particularly delicious flavor but also brings excitement and Tet atmosphere.

Western banh tet is a beauty in Western cuisine. In addition to traditional banh tet filled with salty meat (fatty meat, green beans) and sweet filling (ripe bananas, beans), Westerners also create many types. Different types of banh tet with salted duck egg, green leaf cake, flat green rice cake or baby corn taco... With just one banh tet, they make many different versions that make people admire.

Banh Tet in the West looks simple, but it is a specialty of the people of the Mekong Delta. To have ingredients for making cakes, they set aside a separate plot of land to plant sticky rice to make sticky rice. When the strong wind blows, the sticky rice grains in the field just turn red when they return from the fields to harvest, thresh the grains, then thresh the rice until it is completely clean, then dry it in the sun until it is dry. Next, put the sticky rice in a clay pot and place it on the stove over medium heat. Use the back of the banana leaf as a chopstick to stir well. When the sticky rice is hot and makes a pleasant "pop" sound, quickly pour the sticky rice into the mortar and pound evenly to create flat white, fragrant grains. Then, winnow all the husks to get the flat nuggets. Grate the hard coconut, use coconut water to beat the juice, add it to the rice flakes and mix well, leave for a few minutes until the sticky rice is soft.

The filling for flat green rice cakes is usually green beans and eggplant, cut in half, shelled, cooked and mashed until smooth. Then take the green beans and sugar and stir-fry on the stove until dry. Pouring into the tray, the worker uses a plastic-wrapped hand to roll the filling into a ball about half the size of his wrist, avoiding wrapping it with bare hands as it will smell bad when eaten later.

Spread the banana leaves and put the flattened green rice in, then put the filling and wrap it up like a banh tet but smaller, tie it with string or string, not with nylon string. Then steam the cake for a few hours until it's done. When opening the cake, there is the sweet aroma of sticky rice, the fatty taste of coconut milk, the sweetness of sugar, the aroma of green beans and even the scent of vanilla.

To make quality banh tet is a process, first arrange cleaned banana leaves, spread sticky rice evenly on the leaves, then arrange a layer of ripe bananas, spread a layer of green beans, then spread lard along. Then spread it a second time with a layer of green beans, a layer of bananas, and the last step is to spread the rice paper and wrap it up.

When putting the cake in the pot to cook, first arrange the banana leaves at the bottom of the pot, arrange the cake not too loose and not too tight. Water always covers the wheel. You have to add water in the cake pot, when the water dries the cake will burn and you have to keep an eye on the fire at the bottom of the pot to always have enough heat.

Banh Tet has the fragrant sticky taste of sticky rice mixed with a bit of banana leaf scent. The filling inside depends on your taste, there are many types to choose from such as: banana filling, green bean filling, fatty meat filling,... To cut the banana cake beautifully, People in the West often use a string from a cake pole to cut the cake to avoid sticking to the knife and not breaking the cake.

Many people like to eat hot banh tet, many people like to eat it cold, some people like to eat fried banh tet with pickles, each person has a different taste but is not inferior to the other, all bring pieces of banh tet. best./.