BANH CHUNG / VIETNAMESE RICE CAKE FOR LUNAR NEW YEAR
1. BANANA LEAVES: Prepare your banana leaves according to the video. Note: wipe your banana leaves clean. If you wasn’t them, they will tear- they are fragile
2. PORK: Cut pork into large chunks. Season your pork with salt and pepper to taste. Combine well and set aside.
3. MUNG BEAN: Soak your mung bean in water for at least 3 hours.
- After your mung bean has been soaking for 3 hours, drain your mung beans of the water.
- Then rinse under cold water until the water runs clear.
- After you’ve washed your mung beans, you need to cook it. Cook mung bean with water and salt to taste.. You need JUST enough water to coat mung beans. Note: for me, i had 4 lbs mung beans + 5 cups water + 1 TBSP salt. I diluted 1 TBSP of salt into the water before adding it into my mung beans.
- Bring this to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 10 mins.
- After 10 mins, turn off heat, give it a nice mix, place lid back on and let it sit for 10-15 mins. After 10-15 mins, season with black pepper. Combine well. At this point, your mung bean will crumble. Set this aside
4. SWEET RICE: soak sweet rice in water for at least 5 hours.
- after your ride has been soaking, drain it.
- Then rinse under cold water until the water runs clear. Season this with just salt.
5. Once you have your banana leaves, pork, mung bean and sweet rice prepared, you’re ready to wrap. Wrap your bánh chưng according to the video. I used food safe nylon to tie my banh chung/ rice cakes.
6. I’ll show you how to cook it in part 2.