Housewives nowadays have started preparing side dishes for Tet. According to Vietnamese tradition, the Tet meal must be carefully prepared with plenty of dishes to bring prosperity for the coming year. Therefore, during Tet, every household stores and makes a variety of delicious dishes, both common and expensive.
Even today, you can find neatly lined jars of pickled onions in various colors on many kitchen shelves. Pickled onions have always been an essential part of the Tet meal since ancient times. Serving a slice of “banh chung” or “banh tet” with pickled onions helps prevent feeling overly full, while the onions’ sour taste enhances the flavor and aids digestion.
(Photo: Internet)
A delicious jar of pickled onions should have a perfect balance of sour, sweet, and salty flavors, with crunchy onions. Additionally, the pickling liquid should be clear, without any floating scum or film. This can be a troublesome task for many people. The most crucial step to prevent onions from becoming hard during pickling is the processing step, especially soaking the onions in rice water.
After peeling the onions, soak them with rice water overnight, ensuring the water level completely submerges the onions. The next day, mix the onions evenly with 5 tablespoons of salt. This step helps the onions release excess water and achieve a crispy texture. After soaking for 6 to 8 hours, drain all the water from the onions.
(Photo: Internet)
In the evening, soak the onions again with rice water and leave them overnight. The next day, rinse the onions with boiling water to cool them down, and drain the water. Finally, follow the usual pickling recipe to pickle the onions.
Furthermore, it is important to ensure that the pickling jar is dry, enabling the pickled onions to be preserved for a long time without any film or scum.
(Source: Compiled)
Tet Meals’>Highlighting Five Varieties of Rice for Perfect Tet Meals
As T?t approaches, the focus for many is finding the right ingredients to have a joyful, memorable celebration. On the list of necessities is the staple of the Vietnamese diet – rice – which is a major shopping priority for the holiday.
Exploring the Flavors of Glutinous Rice in Chung and Tét Cakes
With just weeks until the end of the year, many Vietnamese are already busy preparing for the traditional New Year’s Eve celebration which includes making offerings of banh chung and banh tet cakes. But with so many varieties of sticky rice to choose from, which type of rice is the best to use for making these tasty cakes? Here, we look at the many scrumptious options of sticky rice for creating the perfect banh chung and banh tet cakes.
Using These Tips to Easily Cut Bánh Chưng Without Messy Hands and Keep the Delicious Look
This handy trick can be applied to both square cakes and sticky rice cakes, making it a convenient solution!
Traditional square bánh chưng wrapping technique for Tet
Seeing bánh chưng is seeing Tet! No matter where you go or what you do, just coming back to your family, gathering together to wrap the bánh chưng or sitting by the bubbling pot of boiling bánh on a stove full of burning coal already brings the Tet atmosphere rushing in. The fragrant aroma blending with the smell of lá dong, sticky rice, yellow flower, and the sweet and savory taste of the meat filling in the bánh chưng creates a Tet flavor that cannot be found anywhere else.
How to choose delicious and safe bánh chưng?
In today’s fast-paced world, most urban families opt for pre-packaged banh chung, given their busy lifestyles. However, concerns arise when some information suggests that banh chung is quickly boiled by using old batteries, leaving many people worried.
