What is sticky rice cake?

Sticky rice cake is a traditional Vietnamese rice cake which is made from glutinous rice, mung beans, pork and other ingredients.  Considered an essential element of the family altar on the occasion of Tet, the making and eating of bánh chưng during this time is a well-preserved tradition of Vietnamese people.

How to make a sticky rice cake?

The required ingredients of bánh chưng are glutinous rice, mung bean, fatty pork and black pepper, salt, sometimes green onion, and nước mắm for spices. In the wrapping stage, one needs lá dong, strings split from giang- one type of bamboo which has long node, and sometimes a square mold in wood so that Sticky rice cake can be wrapped in a better shape, lá dong, which is popular only in the Southern Asia, can be substituted by banana leaves or even lá bàng.

Lá dong and giang strings have to be washed carefully in order to preserve the taste of the cake, giang strings may be soaked in salt water or steamed so that they can become flexible enough for wrapping. People often choose high quality rice and bean for making bánh chưng, they are soaked in water for 2 hours in case of mung bean and 12 to 14 hours in case of glutinous rice. The fat and lean pork is preferred for bánh chưng because its fatty flavour well associates with the glutinous rice and mung bean. After being sliced in big parts, pork is mixed with pepper, onion and salt or nước mắm

The cake is wrapped in the following order. Firstly the giang strings and two lá dong leaves are placed as the square base for the bánh chưng. After that, glutinous rice is stuffed in lá dong, followed by mung bean, pork and finally another layer of rice so that bean and pork can be respectively in the center of the cake. All placed ingredients are carefully wrapped in lá dong and bound by giang strings in the square form. In order to get a near perfect square-shaped cake, the maker can use a mold of square form as the base for the wrapping. To keep the cake from mold or being spoiled, bánh chưng should be carefully wrapped as tight as possible.

The prepared cakes are tightly arranged in large pot, the pot is filled with fresh water and boiled for hours until they are done from the inside stuffing to outside.

After cooling and unwrapping, the rice skin of bánh chưng turns green because rice has absorbed the colour of lá dong. One bánh chưng is often divided in 8 parts, usually by using the very giang string which bound the wrap of the cake.

As a cake formed from several ingredients, the taste of sticky rice varies from part to part with different flavours of glutinous rice, pork, bean and even the wrapping lá dong. Bánh chưng is often served with pickled onions or vegetables, chả lụa and nước mắm. After unwrapping, bánh chưng can stay good for several days while a wrapped one can be kept for two weeks.

I am lucky this year coming husband family home early then I can help parents to take care the cook of this cake and feel the warm from the fire and the fresh cake.
When we have this done – we will prepare a tray of food together with sticky rice cake to offer to our ancestor Alter in the meaning of inviting them come to join with us for Tet.