Wrapping and Cooking Banh Tet for Tet

Wrapping banh tet is a tradition central to the celebration of Vietnamese Tet. These delicious rice cakes can be wrapped in the shape of a log (banh tet) or in the shape of a large square (banh chung). Both kinds are made of sticky rice, with mung beans and pork in the center. If wrapped well, when the cake is sliced, the mung beans and pork will sit right smack in the center. Looking beautiful, and tasting delicious!

(Sorry for the blurry photo) If you've ever eaten a slice of banh tet or banh chung, the key ingredient is the teeny bit of pork fat along w/ the bit of port that balances out the rich mung beans surrounded by sticky rice.

As many of you know, I dislike beans of all kinds. But, the great thing about Vietnamese cuisine is that I'm fooled into eating ANY kind of bean. One example is the abundance of beans that can be found in a banh tet.

Banh tet and banh chung are wrapped and cooked in banana leaves, and they are secured by grasses or strings -- and are traditionally cut by those same strings, not by knives (in the new year, you don't want to use knives to cut anything in half, since you risk cutting your good fortune and luck).





Banh tet and banh chung can have savory fillings or sweet. One popular filling is banh tet chuoi (made with a banana filling). The picture above is an image of the mungbean and pork filling, but the banana center is also extremely good!





All parts of the process are important, but everything hinges on the tying. You risk spilling everything if you don't hold the banana leaves properly, and if you aren't careful, each cake will not be watertight. Since they are immersed in water to steam, it's extremely important that you tie it very, very tight.







Here they are, wrapped and ready to cook (steam):


Pile up the "logs" and get ready to cook! There is a great deal of work in making banh tet, but there is much fun. Usually all the women will gather and wrap, all the while talking and laughing. Then they wait and watch as the rice cakes cook. As a young child, I used to love staying up late to "help" cook... But I never did anything other than watch. The joy, though, was in being considered a part of something much larger than a cooking party...


After all that talking, and waiting, the rice cakes are finally cooked & ready to eat:

Another way of enjoying these delicious rice cakes is by frying each slice in light olive oil. When fried, each slice is so crispy and chewy! Serve them up with some pickled vegetables and you've got a big hit!