How to make Chinese cakes and ú cakes on the Lunar New Year’s Eve

What is ash cake? from what?

Banh Tro is also known as Banh U Tro, Banh Banh or Banh Gio. This type of cake is made from delicious glutinous rice with water taken from the ashes of some herbs or water from Chinese ash. Depending on the region, the ingredients for making cakes will be different.

Currently, troi cake has 2 versions: cake with filling and without filling. If the Northern people make cakes without filling when eating them with molasses, the Chinese have a delicious dish of ash cake filled with green beans and pork belly.

Where is the specialty ash cake?

In Vietnam, banh tro is available in every province, but some regions have a better way of making this cake.

In the North, banh tro is famous as a specialty of Dak So village (Hanoi), Tay Dinh, Trang market (Vinh Phuc), Duong village, and Thanh Son (Phu Tho).

– In the central region, regions such as Yen Lang (Thanh Hoa), Quang Nam, Phu Yen, and Binh Dinh have very delicious banh chung.

– In the South, there are cakes of the Chinese community.

Instructions on how to make 2 types of traditional ash cakes

Depending on the type of ash cake, the method of making will be different. Check out the delicious cake recipe below.

1. Traditional honey dipped ash cake

Tro cake (banh gio) with traditional honey dipping taste very good. The cake is made from sticky rice with yellow flowers, so the rice grains are fragrant and fragrant. The transparent amber cake has a cool feeling when eaten, dotted with sweet and delicious molasses.

Cake ingredients include:

+ Sticky rice with yellow flower: 1.5kg

+ Ash water: 1.5 liters

+ Banana leaves/dong leaves/bamboo leaves, peanuts.

* Good tip: Ash water you can buy ready-made or make your own at home. How to make ash water is not difficult but requires meticulousness.

Materials needed:

+ Charcoal

+ Boiled and cooled water

How to do this:

+ You put clean charcoal in a plastic bottle, then pour cooled boiled water into the bottle. Note, the coal part accounts for about 1/3 of the plastic bottle.

+ Soak coal for about 3-4 days. Pour the soaked coal water through a bucket towel to decant the clear water.

+ Continue to brew the decanted coal water for about 1 night and then filter it one more time, you have ash water to make cakes already.

– How to make the cake as follows:

Step 1: Prepare sticky rice

Glutinous rice is washed and soaked for about 4 – 8 hours.

+ When the rice has soaked enough time, you wash it thoroughly and pour it into a medium-sized bowl.

+ Pour 1.5 liters of prepared Chinese ash water into a bowl with glutinous rice and soak for about 22 hours when the rice grains are soft.

+ Wash the rice again and then pour it into the basket to drain.

Step 2: Wrap the cake

+ The dong leaves are washed, dried, peeled off the live part of the leaves.

+ Arrange the dong leaves on a flat tray and then scoop the glutinous rice into it. Wrap the edges of the leaves on both sides, then use a flatbread to fix the cake.

Pay attention, tie tightly to prevent the cake from unraveling during the boiling process.

Step 3: Boil the cake

+ Put the cake in a large pot and pour water to cover the cake. You should put a heavy object on the surface so that the cake can cook evenly.

After about 2-3 hours, the cake is cooked. Take out the cake to cool and enjoy.

Step 4: Finished product

The ash cake after cooled has a very beautiful clear color. Do not forget to prepare an additional bowl of molasses to make the dish more round.

2. Chinese ash cake (banh ú ba pong)

On the day Dragon Boat Festival, the Chinese have a dish called troi cake, also known as banh ú, which is extremely delicious. The way to make the cake is similar to the traditional cake of the Northern people, but with green bean meat filling.

– Ingredient:

+ Green beans: 200g

+ Lotus seeds: 200g

+ Delicious sticky rice: 900g

+ shiitake mushrooms: 8 pieces

+ Sausage: 50g

+ Bacon: 200g

+ Salted eggs: 8 pieces

+ Dried shrimp: 50g

+ Red onion, cooking oil, five spices

+ Banana leaves

+ Rice wine

– How to make Chinese ash cake

Step 1: Prepare ingredients

+ Glutinous rice soaked for about 2-4 hours, washed clean, removed and drained.

+ Lotus seeds and green beans you bring to a boil.

+ Bacon, cut into bite-sized pieces, then marinate with seasoning, soy sauce, five flavors, and pepper within 30 minutes.

+ Dried shrimp, soaked shiitake mushrooms soften and then finely chopped.

+ Sausage cut into bite-sized pieces.

+ Salted eggs washed with white wine to remove the fishy smell and red egg color, more beautiful.

Step 2: Stir-fry the dumplings

+ Put a clean pan on the stove and add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil here. Add 1 teaspoon of minced purple onion to the pan and then pour in the bacon, dried shrimp, mushrooms, and lotus seeds and stir-fry until cooked.

Add seasoning to taste and then turn off the heat.

Step 3: Wrap the cake

+ Banana leaves are heated and cut into pieces with the size of about 40x40cm.

+ Stack 2 pieces of banana leaves on top of each other, then fold them to form a funnel.

+ Ladle glutinous rice inside and then in turn add green beans and stir-fried meat. Place salted egg in the middle, add 1 layer of green beans and finally sticky rice.

+ Cover the banana leaf on top and then fold the edge of the banana leaf. Use a ladle to tightly wrap the cake to prevent the rice from falling out.

Step 4: Boil the cake

+ Put the cake in a large pot and pour water to cover the cake. Boil about 3-4 hours is the cake is cooked.

+ Remove the cake to the basket to cool and then enjoy.

The Chinese ash cake has a delicious taste, the layer of sticky rice is fragrant, and the filling inside is fatty and can be eaten forever.

Tips for making delicious ash cakes, fragrant and delicious without leaving rice

Regardless of the method of cake making, you still need to master the following secrets to make the cake fragrant and not worry about the rice again.

– Choose delicious sticky rice. Most people use sticky rice with yellow flowers and glutinous rice to wrap cakes. This type of rice is round, fragrant and especially extremely flexible, so the cake will be more delicious.

Soaking rice for enough time is also the secret to enhancing the flavor of this cake. Soaking the rice for a long time will help the rice grains to be moist enough to bloom evenly and more beautiful.

– The use of ash water saves time and stages when soaking rice, but this type of water is not really good for health. You should use traditional ash taken from herbs and herbs so that the cake will be fragrant and not harmful to the body.

– Boil the cake well. After boiling, you should soak the cake in the pot for about 30 minutes so that the cake is cooked, so that the rice will not be afraid for a long time.

How long does ash cake keep?

Each type of ash cake has a different shelf life. For example, under normal conditions, traditional honey-dipped ash cakes can be kept for 1-2 days, but Chinese ash cakes can only be stored for 1 day. If the weather is hot, it may go rancid.

The best way to store cakes is to put them in the freezer of the refrigerator. If left in this way, the shelf life can be extended up to 2 months. When eating, you just need to take it out and then boil or steam it again.

In case the house does not have a refrigerator, you should keep the cake in a cool place and eat it only during the day.

Above are 2 ways to make delicious Tro cake (banh ú Ba status), refer to how to make delicious dishes for the Lunar New Year at Eva Kitchen. Good luck!