3-color Tet cake, a specialty of Tra Cuon, Tra Vinh, impresses with 3 beautiful colors of blue – orange – purple. The filling includes green beans, meat, salted eggs, and spices mixed together to create a unique flavor. The way to wrap banh tet is quite simple and the ingredients are easy to find so you can make it yourself at home.
1. Interesting things about 3-color tacos
Along with banh chung on traditional Tet day, banh tet with an elongated shape is indispensable in the dinner tray. Banh tet also has many types such as traditional banh tet with sticky rice and bean paste and meat like banh tet, or in the West there are banh tet of Long An, banh tet of green leaves, banh tet of ginseng, 3-color tet cake (three-color banh tet) and the most famous is three-color banh tet in Tra Cuon, Tra Vinh. Not simply a cake eaten during Tet, tri-colored banh tet, available all year round, has become a specialty and brings income to hundreds of households in Tra Cuon, even exported abroad.
3-color tet cake – Tra Vinh specialty (Photo: bachhoaxanh).
Unlike traditional banh tet, the outer sticky rice shell is only the light green color of dong or banana leaves, tricolor banh tet, as its name suggests, is a sticky part with 3 colors of blue – orange – purple mixed together. Especially the green sticky part of 3-color tet cake Not from pandan leaves, but from the leaves of Malabar spinach (green spinach leaves) pureed and squeezed to get the juice to create a different color and aroma. The remaining two colors are orange and purple, taken from gac and camphor leaves, respectively. All are “natural colorants” that are extremely rustic and close to the lives of people in the West.
Sticky rice was chosen 3-color tet cake Tra Vinh is usually Long An wax sticky rice which is flexible and can be preserved for a long time. Green beans for baking are large, round beans that are peeled and then cooked. Wrapped pork belly is cut into pieces about 7-8cm long and then marinated with familiar spices such as salt, sugar, green onions, in addition to salted eggs and dried shrimp (depending on the place). The finished cake after cooking is not only beautiful but also fragrant and flexible. The crust and filling blend together with the unique flavor of the ingredients, making it unforgettable.
Tri-colored banh tet on the first day of the new year makes people immediately think of the image of family gathering and reunion. Many people also believe that the bright colors of the cake will bring wishes, fortune and luck.
2. How to wrap 3-color Tet cakes in Tra Vinh
Impressing with beautiful colors and unique flavors, but not everyone has the opportunity to enjoy the original 3-color Tra Vinh banh tet. Instead, you can learn how to wrap it for your family to enjoy and make the Tet tray more brilliant.
2.1. Prepare wrapping ingredients
No matter what type of cake you make, the preparation of ingredients is very important because it determines the quality of the finished product later. The ingredients for the Western tri-color banh tet you need to prepare include:
Sticky rice
Green beans without skin
Lean pork, pork back fat
Salted duck eggs
Banana leaves
Malabar spinach, black leaves, gac
Spring onion
Spices: sugar, salt, pepper, seasoning powder
Rope Prepare ingredients to wrap banh tet tri colors (Photo: banhtettracuon).
2.2. Preliminary steps and detailed packaging
Step 1: Prepare ingredients
Wash the sticky rice, soak it for 8 hours and drain.
Wash spinach leaves, grind them, squeeze out the juice and mix well with a portion of rice to create a green color.
Do the same with black leaves and then mix with a portion of sticky rice to create a purple color.
Gac fruit is not pureed but peeled to get the seeds to create red color.
Wash green beans and soak for about 4 hours until soft.
Wash lean meat and pork back fat, cut into pieces about 7-8cm long, then marinate with spices such as salt, pepper, seasoning and green onions for about 30 minutes.
Take the salted egg yolk separately and cut it in half.
Banana leaves need to be large, not torn, then washed thoroughly and dried.
Step 2: Green bean paste
After soaking green beans, cook them with sugar and slugs until thick and let cool.
Step 3: Make the tri-color tet filling
This is also a more special point about Tra Cuon banh tet compared to traditional banh tet as the filling is made separately first and has more ingredients. First, spread an even layer of green beans about 20cm, then place the meat and about 4 pieces of salted eggs on top and roll it all firmly with the shell as the beans.
Step 4: Proceed to wrap the cake
Package 3-color tet cake No need for molds and mainly manual dexterity. First, you place 2-3 layers of banana leaves alternately, then scoop out the sticky rice colors one by one, use your hands to shape and spread them into rectangles next to each other so that the sticky part forms a square on the surface of the banana leaf. Then just add the rolled up filling and quickly roll it so that the filling doesn’t stick out.
Bend one end of the leaf and fold the cake up, add a little sticky rice on top, then use your hands to shape the cake tightly. Use 2 small pieces of banana leaf placed in a cross shape to close the top of the cake. Finally, wrap the cake with string like wrapping traditional banh tet.
The 3-color tri-colored banh tet looks short but weighs a kilo (Photo: Nguyenkim).
3. How to cook 3-color tacos
After being wrapped, the 3-color banh tet rolls will be placed in a large pot. Then boil on a high fire wood stove for about 8-10 hours so the cake is cooked evenly. A batch of delicious, quality Tra Vinh tri-color banh tet will last for 5-7 days depending on normal conditions and longer when vacuumed.
The finished product produces a cake with bright, vibrant green – orange – purple colors and a filling with the typical flavor of beans, meat, and salted eggs combined. You can eat it with braised duck meat or add sweet and sour radish to quench your thirst.
Package yourself 3-color tet cake The flavor may not be as standard as what people in Tra Cuon and Tra Vinh pack, but it is very interesting and enriches Tet dishes. It’s best if you have the opportunity to return to Tra Vinh, you should enjoy this famous Western banh tet dish.
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