Water hyacinth drifts into… mom’s kitchen

April 14, 2022 16:34 GMT+7

The common hyacinth is called water hyacinth or Japanese water hyacinth, which is abundant in the river region. In the past, water hyacinth was only an aquatic species, herbaceous, not useful, but a familiar image to people in the Mekong Delta. Therefore, there is a new proverb: “The water is flowing quietly / Water hyacinth is floating / I see you as small, I love you…”.

I remember when I was a child, there was a canal in front of the house, water hyacinth often filled with canals. Every summer vacation, children like me often go to the canal to take a look at the water hyacinth and bring it home to my mother to prepare rustic dishes. At that time, the dish of water hyacinth was often present in the family rice tray of the people in the river countryside.

Sometimes on rainy days, my mother often asks me to go to the canal to cut the water hyacinth stems and fry the copper shrimp that I went to shovel and bring back. The way to make stir-fried water hyacinth with copper shrimp in the garden style is not too picky.

Mom said, in order for the dish to be delicious, you must choose the green and tender young leaves. Looking at the water hyacinth brought back, cut into short pieces, washed with diluted salt water, then squeezed to drain. The copper shrimp are still fresh, the cheeks are marinated with a little pepper, onion, garlic, and fish sauce, then put in a hot pan and stir-fry to hunt again. Then, put all the water hyacinth in, continue to stir-fry well and season to taste before removing from the stove, putting it on a plate.

This dish comes with a cup of fish sauce, a little bit of dangerous green chili, spicy and numbing the tongue. The dish is perfect when eaten with hot white rice. The charming aroma and the taste of the country blend together to make the rustic dish become its own specialty, very poetic. Therefore, my hometown people have a saying: “Water hyacinth floating along the river / Picking and stir-frying sweet shrimp in the hearts of the villagers”.

Urban people are still quite unfamiliar with delicious dishes made from water hyacinth. However, now dishes from water hyacinth have also appeared on the menus of some restaurants with various processing methods such as boiled water hyacinth with fish sauce. Water hyacinth is both soft, sweet, cool and has a characteristic taste. Many culinary connoisseurs use water hyacinth and water hyacinth flowers to make a delicious and delicious braised fish sauce salad. Wash young hyacinth. It is best to soak with a little dilute salt to eat raw with braised fish sauce and braised fish. The best thing is dipping it with braised goby fish sauce.

When I had a bunch of rice snails, my mother cracked the water hyacinth and took it home, peeled it off and used a planer, grated it into thin pieces, then soaked in water mixed with a little alum and lemon juice for about five minutes so that the water hyacinth wouldn’t darken. brittle. Then take out the cheeks, rinse, and dry. Boiled rice snails take the intestines, boiled bacon cut into thin pieces, put each item on a plate. Finally, put the above-prepared ingredients into a plate and mix well with spices such as laksa leaves, lemon sugar, chili, fish sauce, pounded roasted peanuts. Ma also makes a cup of sweet and sour fish sauce. Pick up the intestines of a rice snail, a piece of boiled meat with a piece of water hyacinth and dip it into a bowl of garlic and chili fish sauce, slowly chew it in your mouth, you will see the sweet and fatty taste of rice snails and meat; Crispy, sweet taste with the faint aroma of water hyacinth.

Every time I call my mother, I still nag: “When you come back, I will cook eel sour soup with water hyacinth, Mom!”. If you want to make a typical delicious sour soup, you must have an ant’s egg nest. Put the ant’s eggs in the basket, dip in boiling water to get the characteristic sour substance, then remove the ant eggs, drop the cleaned eels in to boil again, taste and taste, then drop in the water hyacinth. You can add to the soup pot a few stalks of water lily or a pinch of wild flowers to make the color more attractive, add a few slices of chili, cilantro, and cilantro to make it more delicious and rich in the homeland: “Caught eel to cook sour soup/ Where is the rustic dish that is inferior to that of Thi Thien?

In the West, in the afternoon, the family gathers around a pot of hot and sour soup and a cup of spicy fish sauce to create a cozy scene. For children who used to be far away from home like me, this is an unforgettable image.

According to www.phunuonline.com.vn