Bánh Tét: Recipe, Ingredients, How to Eat Vietnamese Cake

Bánh Tét, Vietnamese Sticky Rice and Mung Bean Cake - a representative cake for Vietnamese Lunar New Year in the South Vietnam, can be easily found at any house during Tet. Banh Tet is another modified version of Banh Chung from the Northern Vietnam. The main ingredients, such as the glutinous rice, mung bean, cooked pork belly are almost the same as the Banh Chung. however, the shape of Banh Tet is cylindrical not square or round shaped. Banh Tet is usually wrapped in green banana leaves with cylinder shape.

What is Bánh Tét?

Banh Tet Cake is often made in advance, about a week prior to Vietnamese TET Holiday. Glutinous rice must be the best quality - fragrant and fresh to create the highest quality Banh Tet. Mung bean should be rinsed many times before being cooked. Pork and pork’s fat seasoned with salt, sugar and other spices is cooked in advance before mixing all together.

To make Banh Tet, some people also put dried shrimps together with pork at the core to make it more delicious. Banana leaf is used to cover all the ingredients. Once all ingredients prepared in advance have been put on the banana leaf and tightened with some plastic ribbons, Banh Tet, then, will be steamed in a large pot.

Just like Banh Chung, ingredients of Banh Tet call for soaked glutinous rice and mung bean; pork and wrapping leaves, just similar to Banh Chung Recipe. After cooking, people use some threads and cleverly cut it horizontally. The soft glutinous rice well mixed with pork and mung bean looks like a donut without a hole in the middle but with a tasty core.

Banh Tet in Vietnam is often eaten with cu cai muoi (turnip pickles), cu cai nuoc mam (turnip fishsauce pickles) and Thịt Kho Cốt Dừa (pork cooked with coconut juice). Banh Tet can be stocked in the refrigerator during Tet. Whenever wanted, they can steam it to reheat it or fry it in a pan to change the taste. Some people may put some powder covering Banh Tet and fry it which makes it crispy and even tastier.

Serving and Storage Banh Tet

To eat Banh Tet, you firstly remove all the banana leaves from the rice cakes and cut with a knife into 1 to 2-inch coins. Traditionally, it’s cut with a string to prevent sticking. Some people use floss. Others use a fishing line. The cakes can be enjoyed, as is, at room temperature.

You can also pan-fry them in a bit of cooking oil for a golden crunchy crust and enjoy it warm, which is how Vietnamese like them. But be careful with those crispy edges. They are not only crunchy but sticky from the sticky rice. This means a bite can chip fragile teeth or pull out dentures.

Wrap the cooked cakes in saran/plastic wrap to prevent air exposure then stick them in the fridge. They keep well refrigerated for up to one week, possibly even two. You can also freeze them for up to 8 months. Better yet, gift them to friends and families, as they are typically homemade and can’t be purchased. They will thank you for your service.

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