BÁNH Ú - Pyramid Sticky Rice Dumplings | Helen's Recipes

Hi everyone, today I'm making Banh U. It's a sticky rice dumplings with pork and mung bean fillings. The concept of these dumplings are quite similar to the Vietnamese traditional rice cakes called Banh Chung and Banh Tet but it's wrapped in a kind of pyramid shape and in a much smaller size. So you can basically have the similar taste to Banh Chung and Banh Tet but it takes less time to cook and so you can easily make it at home. Let's begin. Firstly, you want to wash sticky rice a few times until the water runs clear and then soak in water for at least 4 hours. Also wash 100g of peeled split mung beans and then soak in water for 1 hour. The beans will grow bigger and then we're going to cook in a rice cooker with about a cup of water. If you don't have a rice cooker, you can steam the beans until they are soft for about 20 minutes. Then mash the mung beans with a wooden spoon or put in a processor with a teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt. You also need 150g or about 5 oz of pork belly. Cut into about 1cm thick slices and then we're going to season the meat with a tablespoon of minced shallots and some salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and set aside for about 15 minutes. Next, scoop about a tablespoon of the mashed mung beans and press it out into a thin disc. Then place a piece of the pork into the center. Then compress and shape it into a rough ball. After soaking the sticky rice in water for at least 4 hours or overnight, you want to drain well and then toss with half a teaspoon of salt. You want to tear the banana leaf into large square pieces about 20 by 20 cm. Then quickly blanch in boiling water so it's easier to work with and also to sterilize. Place one piece on another with the dark side facing outwards. Put your pointy finger somewhere into the center a bit lower and then fold into a triangle and then you can open it up into a funnel. Now place 3 tablespoons of the sticky rice into the funnel and make a hole in the center. Then place a filling ball into it and then cover it up with about 1 to 2 tablespoons of more sticky rice. Banh O has to be shaped into kind of pyramid shape which has 4 drops pointing out. So just watch carefully to see how it's done. Make sure that you wrap and tuck it in carefully and do not make any leak because if the water penetrates into the dumplings, the dumplings gonna be very mushy. Then you can use some kitchen toys to tie it up. You want to tie the two drops first and twist the cake at the 90 degrees and then tie one more knot. Now let me do another one. Then you want to gather all the dumplings together and tie them up just like that. Trim off the excess strings if any. Now you want to cook the dumplings for about 3 hours if you use normal pot and about one hour and a half if you use a pressure cooker. One thing you have to make sure is that the water should be cover the dumplings the whole time. So use something heavy like a plate to press it down, making sure the dumplings well submerged into the water. If you use a normal pot, you probably have to top it up with more hot water during the cooking process. When it's done, you can rinse the dumplings under cold water. Then hang them up to dry completely. Wow, I'm so excited. Not sure how it is inside. Look at that. The inside is fully cooked and not mushy at all. You can see clearly the mung beans filling and the pork showing up. It looks so good. I really enjoy a bánh ấu with some soy sauce and chili sauce. Yummy. I hope you like it and don't forget to click like and subscribe. Check out my Vietnamese bánh playlist and also more ideas for the upcoming Tet holiday. Thank you for watching. Bye bye.