Vietnamese banh gai recipe - How to make banh gai at home

For a long time “Banh gai” has been considered as a traditional food in Viet Nam, the specialty in Hai Duong province. If you have a chance to enjoy Banh gai, you can not forget the greasy taste, fragrant of sesame, a green bean as well as the flavor of covering banana leaf. The crust of Banh gai with black color made from Boehmeria nivea leaf symbolizes for the solidarity and faithfulness. The filling of the cake with the yellow color of mung beans and peanut symbolizes for the gathering and permanence.

Today, ’Banh gai” are made frequently and have been displayed in holidays and festivals. Making “Banh gai” is not as easy as we imagine. Choosing leaf, cleaning leaf, refining the filling of cake and wrapping need to be skillful and elaborate to make definitely tasty cakes. “Banh gai” can be served in some days without being sploied. You can preserve “Banh gai” in refrigerator and steaming again when serving. Each region has various ways to make “Banh gai”, however there are some steps below you need to follow.

The ingredients for making Banh gai recipe:

Glutinous rice flour: 500g
Tapioca starch: 100g
Boehmeria nivea leaf: 400g
Peeled mung beans: 350g
Refined sugar: 300 g
Shredded coconut: 100g
Pork fat: 100g
Sesame: 100g
Grapefruit extract: 20 ml
Dried banana leaves: 1 big bunch
Bamboo strip
Cooking oil
Steamer

The way to make Banh gai recipe:

Step 1:

Tear “Lá Gai” (Boehmeria nivea leaf) into 2 parts, remove the midrib of leaf, clean carefully with water then let drain.

Place the cook into the stove, boil “Lá Gai” until they are well-done then take out to drain.

Wait for “Lá Gai” cool down then put them into blender to grind well (or grind in a mortar). Using a sift to filter residue and get the extract.

Step 2: Making flour

Add Glutinous rice flour and tapioca starch into a small pot then mix together.

Add 150g sugar and “lá gai” extract into the mixture then mix well.

Use hands to knead flour carefully until the mixture dense.

Step 3:Roasting sesame

Place a pan on the stove and turn on the heat.

Add sesame into the pan and stir well until getting fragrant smell, then take them out and let cool down

Step 4: Preparing mung beans

Soak mung beans before 2-3 hours in order to make them soften,

Clean again when being needed to make a cake, then pick into cook and steam.

When mung bean are well-done, take them out and grind well

Step 5: Processing pork fat

Clean the pork fat and boil in hot water

Take pork fat out then dice and mix with 2 tbsp of sugar.

Stir the mixture well until the pork fat turn to opaque. If the sugar melt into liquid, get rid of these liquid to get dry pork-fat sugar mixture.

The pork-fat sugar will make “Bánh gai” fragrant and greasy.

Step 6:

Add pork-fat sugar mixture into the bowl of grinded mung beans.

Add shredded coconut, grape fruit extract, sugar into bowl then mix together.

After mixing, ladle a little mixture into palm to round well then place into trays.

Do these steps again until run out of the mixture.

Step 7:

Take some dough into your palm then round and put pressure to make it flat,

then put the mung beans stuffing into the middle,

Wrap the dough in order that it covers all stuffing inside and get the round shape. After kneading, rolling lightly in roast sesame plate.

Making this step again until the ingredient is out of stock.

Step 8:

Cleaning the dried banana leaves. You can also dip the dried banana leaves into boil water to make them soften and easy to wrap.

Preparing some cooking oil in a bowl.

Lying 2 piece of banana leaf alternatively, adding some cooking oil to leaf inside, the place touching the cake, then pick the cake to the middle of them, but light pressure.

You arrange banana leaves to keep it out of the wind and have square shape, wrap more 1-2 leaf layer. Using bamboo strips tight the cake

Step 9: Steaming cake