Banh Chung is an indispensable traditional food to welcome the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, bringing the meaning of reunion and harmony.
During the three days of Tet, beautiful Banh Chung, with its square shape and green leaves, is chosen carefully to present to the ancestor’s altar, a beautiful habit in Vietnamese culture for a long time.
However, wrapping Banh Chung is quite difficult, so not everyone can pack the perfect piece.
In this article, Vietnamdrive will introduce you to details of history, meaning, and how to make a correct Banh Chung.
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1. The origin of Banh Chung
Every Tet, Vietnamese people often look forward to the day of reuniting with relatives and family, together with wrapping Banh Chung and forming delicious traditional dishes presented to the ancestor altar. But in today’s society, not everyone understands the origin of this particular custom.
An old legend states that when the sixth King, Hung Vuong, was old and weak, he wanted to find a successor. However, he had up to 20 sons. The King decreed that while worshipping the King’s ancestors in the lunar new year, whoever made him happy would confer the throne.
All sons were eager to send people looking for delicious and strange things to offer to the King, but Lang Lieu was the saddest. Lang Lieu is the eighteenth child who used to farm, so there was nothing in the house but rice, corn, and sweet potatoes. So, he did not know how to find valuable products to offer to his father on the worshipping day.
After a dreamy night, he selected the best sticky rice in the house to make two kinds of cakes, one square and the other round.
When the worshipping day came, his father saw and felt very satisfied with Lang Lieu’s offerings. The King named the square cake the Banh Chung, representing the earth, and the round cake the Banh Giay, representing heaven.
The King chose Lang Lieu’s cakes to sacrifice heaven, earth, and the former King and then passed the throne to Lang Lieu.
Since then, on the Tet holidays, the King has ordered people to make these cakes to present to the ancestors and wish them support and favorable crops for a new year.
Gradually, making Banh Chung and Banh Giay on Tet has become a typical cultural feature in the traditional occasions of the Vietnamese people.
2. Banh Chung Meaning
Banh Chung and Banh Giay cakes are typical dishes for the Traditional New Year and contain profound meanings. They express the worldview and human life of an ancient wet rice civilization.
According to the Vietnamese ancestors’ conception, Banh Giay and Banh Chung represent “round sky and square land.”
The appearance of Banh Chung and Banh Giay on the Lunar New Year is a way for Vietnamese farmers to express their gratitude to heaven and earth for the good crops that bring people a full, good life.
Also, making these cakes shows the ethic of “when drinking water, remember its source,” expressing the child’s filial piety to his parents. Thus, the custom of using Banh Chung and Banh Giay as gifts to ancestors on Tet has also become a lovely habit of the Vietnamese.
The Banh Chung is made from glutinous rice, green beans, pork, onion, and pepper—all traditional ingredients of Vietnamese cooking. Glutinous rice represents the soil; mung beans, onion, and pepper symbolize the plant; and pork represents the pig and animals. Trees and animals live on the soil, forming the earth.
When making Banh Chung, most family members come together. Each member does one part of the work, supporting the others to finish the best cakes. This activity makes the members reunite and understand each other better, creating warm feelings for the family.
The custom of using Banh Chung and Banh Giay as gifts to ancestors on Tet has also become a typical cultural feature of the Vietnamese.
>> You may want to see the meaning of Li Xi custom.
3. How to make a perfect Banh Chung
Banh Chung is a familiar dish associated with most Vietnamese. Join us in making this cake to learn more about traditional Vietnamese food.
Ingredients for making Banh Chung for five cakes
- Sticky rice: 650 gram
- Mung beans without shell 400 gram
- Bacon 300 gram
- Peper, shallot, salt, and seasoning powder
- Dong leaves or banana leaves to wrap the cake.
How to prepare Banh Chung
Time needed: 8 to 10 hours
Banh Chung requires preparation around 1 hour 30 minutes, and the cooking duration is 6-7 hours. You also need 6 – 8 hours to soak the sticky rice in advance.
1. Prepare
Before making Banh Chung, you must soak the sticky rice first. Ideally, you should dip the rice overnight or for at least 6 hours.
It would be best to soak sticky rice with pandan leaves (also called fragrant pineapple leaves) to make the sticky green color, helping to make the sticky rice more fragrant.
The unshelled mung beans should also be soaked for 3-4 hours.
2. Preliminary process
After soaking the sticky rice, pour it into the basket and let it dry. Then, add 1/3 teaspoon of salt and mix the rice with your hands.
The same is true for mung beans. You pour them out, drain them, and mix them with ¼ teaspoons of salt and pepper.
Next, marinate meat with 1/3 teaspoon of salt, pepper, shallot, and sugar.
3. Wrap Banh Chung
To make Banh Chung more beautiful in a square shape, you should prepare a square frame to make a mold with around 10 cm on each side.
Next, you carefully arrange 4 leaves of Dong leaves into the mold when these can fix the frame.
Then, pour the sticky rice into these leaves with the quantity of ½ of the mold.
You spread the rice evenly at the four corners of the mold and let the concave in the middle.
You put the mung beans in, then the meat, and the mung beans again. Next, you spread the sticky rice over it.
You have to try to get the same amount of sticky rice and mung beans above and below.
4. Boil Banh Chung
Place the cake in a large pot and cover it with water. Boiling a small cake takes about 6 hours while boiling a big one takes longer.
You also need to prepare boiling water so that when the water in the large pot is low, you can add more slowly.
When the cakes have been boiled for half the time, return them and replace the water with a new, cool one. This will prevent the cakes from being raw and ensure they are evenly cooked.
After Banh Chung is cooked well, take them out and put them in cold water for 20 minutes.
Then, drain the cake and use a slightly heavy object to apply pressure to it to squeeze the water out. This will prevent the Banh Chung from becoming too soft and allowing them to last longer. Pressing within 4 hours is fine.
5. Finished products
Once cooking is complete, you can store Banh Chung in a cool place. The good ones can last for 5 days.
When you want to eat a warm Banh Chung, just put it in the microwave!
Before tasting it, you must cut Banh Chung into small pieces so the eaters can enjoy it easily.
Notes:
During the cooking time, you need to pay attention to the following to ensure the cakes are delicious and will not deform or crumble.
- Before placing Banh Chung in the pot, you need to put a bamboo frame underneath it so the cakes won’t burn and stick to the bottom.
- Put the cakes into layers stacked neatly and tightly so that they are kept fixed. If the boiling water has a force that causes the cakes to be pushed, they will not break.
- When the water has boiled, reduce the heat or lower the temperature. Let the fire simmer only during the whole cooking process.
- Always notice the level of water in the pot to avoid draining. When the water goes down, you need to add more boiling water to cover all of Banh Chung so they can be cooked well.
