Cuisine

How to wrap beautiful, delicious and standard Chung cake

TB (summary) January 16, 2025 21:33

The steps to wrap banh chung may sound simple, but in reality, to wrap a beautiful, delicious banh chung that is standard for Tet is not easy.

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Making banh chung is an occasion for family reunion.

For thousands of years, Banh Chung has become a traditional dish during the traditional Tet holiday of the people in the North. Banh Chung is something that every Tet must have, every family must have. Many families have a couple dozen, few have five or seven, first to worship ancestors, then to display on the tray to enjoy with family during the spring days.

Nowadays, many people consider making banh chung as an interesting experience. Making banh chung by yourself is like an occasion for family members to reunite, even making people more excited than year-end parties and festivals.

The steps to wrap banh chung may sound simple, but in reality, to wrap a beautiful, delicious banh chung that is standard for Tet is not easy.

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Banh chung is a traditional dish during the traditional Tet holiday of the people in the North.

Prepare ingredients

Ingredients used to make banh chung include sticky rice, pork belly, peeled mung beans, banana leaves or dong leaves, bamboo strips, salt, sugar, and pepper.

To make delicious and beautiful banh chung, you must choose dong leaves that are intact, dark green, good elasticity, large and wide, and must be young leaves so that they can wrap the filling inside easily and do not tear easily when wrapped.

Wash dong leaves, dry both sides, then cut off the stem.

Bamboo strips need to be soaked in water for a few hours and then torn into thin strips about 0.5cm wide.

Wash the sticky rice, drain it, and then toss it with a little salt. Many families also soak the sticky rice with galangal or pandan leaves to give the rice a green color and make it more fragrant.

With green beans, choose the evenly yellow beans, wash them, and steam them to make the banh chung filling more delicious. You can also add a little salt and pepper to the green beans and mix well.

Pork must be selected with both lean and fat, cut into large pieces. The way to marinate the meat is also simple, just marinate with salt, sugar, dried onion, pepper in moderate amounts. In some localities famous for making delicious banh chung, such as Do Son, Hai Phong, the pork belly used to make banh chung filling is carefully selected, when marinated, it will be mixed with ground pepper and cardamom before being put into the package.

Cake package

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Green dong leaves on the outside, in the middle is rice, green beans, and fatty meat.

Nowadays, using molds to wrap banh chung is quite popular, however, skillful people can still make square, beautiful banh chung that is not much different from using molds.

First, place the dark green side of one dong leaf face down on the floor. Next, place the dark green sides of the other two dong leaves face up and place them perpendicularly in the middle of the other face down dong leaf.

Add the cake ingredients in order: 1 layer of sticky rice, 1 layer of mung beans, 1 layer of pork, 1 layer of mung beans and finally 1 layer of sticky rice.

Hold the 2 edges of the leaf vertically on the cake, then use your hands to fold and roll the leaf so that the folds are fixed, then hold the folded edge with one hand, and use the other hand to fold 1 side of the leaf horizontally.

Stand the cake upright, hold it firmly and tap it gently on the table to spread the filling evenly, then fold the top leaf in, stand the cake on this side on the table and do the same with the other side.

Take 2 strings and tie them parallel to each other to hold the cake tightly. Next, tie 2 more strings perpendicular to the 2 strings above.

Tying the bamboo strips seems simple but turns out to be quite "difficult". When tying the bamboo strips, be careful: if the strips are too tight, the cake will be uneven and ugly after being boiled; if they are too loose, the cake will easily come unwrapped. Therefore, the person tying the bamboo strips must choose a way to tie the cake tightly, ensuring that the rice and filling inside are cooked evenly and the cake looks beautiful.

Boil the cake

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Cooking time for banh chung is from 5 to 12 hours depending on the size of the cake.

Before placing the banh chung in the pot, you need to place a layer of dong leaf stalks underneath so that the cake does not burn and stick to the bottom of the pot.

When placing the cakes in the pot, arrange them tightly in rows so that the cakes do not overcook, then pour water over the cakes (10-15cm) to boil.

Only keep the fire low during the entire boiling process of banh chung. Always prepare a pot of boiling water next to it so that when the water in the pot is low, you can add more water immediately, do not pour cold water into the pot. When the water boils, you need to add more water every 1.5 hours. When half of the boiling time has passed, you should open the pot lid and turn the cake over so that it cooks more evenly.

Small sized cakes only need to be boiled for about 5 hours to be cooked, but large sized cakes will take longer to boil, at least 12 hours.

After the cake is cooked, take it out of the pot and soak it in cold water for about 20 minutes, then arrange the cake on the table, use something heavy to press down to squeeze out the water so the cake is dry and delicious and can be kept for a long time. The time to squeeze out all the water is about 5 to 8 hours.

The right and healthy way to enjoy banh chung is to eat it with green vegetables and pickles, pickled onions or pickled onions, which will not cause boredom, balance nutrition and aid digestion. If you eat banh chung, you should limit other starchy foods in the same meal.

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How to wrap beautiful, delicious and standard Chung cake