BÁNH CỐM - Green Sticky Rice Cake Recipe | Helen's Recipes

Hi everyone, it's Helen here. Today I will make a really highly requested sweet treat from Hanoi called Banh Com. As you might not know already, Banh Com is this young sticky rice flakes and it's one of Hanoi's culinary specialties. Authentic Com must be flat, lime green, slightly chewy and sticky and it smells really pleasant of the scent of fresh green rice. It has some elegant, fresh, simple flavor. Fresh Com only is available in autumn but luckily now we can buy the dry version in package all year round and you might find it at the dry section at your local Asian store. About a hundred years ago, a Hanoian woman came up with the idea of making Banh Com so people could savor the taste of Com all year round. And Banh Com is made of Com, of course, and some mung bean filling and it's a northern Vietnamese must-have for happy occasions like weddings, engagements and Lunar New Year. So let's begin. The ingredients you're going to need. Firstly you want to chop up the pandan leaves and then blend with about 150 ml of water. Then drain and extract the green juice through a sieve and discard the fibrous green parts. Mix the pandan juice with the dry Com flakes for about 1 hour. I'm using 1 cup of the dry Com flakes today. This will give the Com a stronger color and somewhat more fragrant smell of the pandan leaves too. So for the fillings, you also need to soak about half a cup of peeled split mung beans in water for at least 2 hours and then drain and cook in a saucepan with half a cup of water. Bring to a boil and cook over medium-high heat. Remove the foam and stir occasionally so the mung bean will not stick to the base of the pan and add a pinch of salt. Cook until most of the water is evaporated and then cover the lid and keep the heat to very low. Cook for another 15 minutes until the beans are soft and mashable. Then you can turn off the heat and leave for another 5 minutes covered so it has more time to become even more soft. Then transfer it into a food processor and add 50 g of sugar, 50 ml of coconut milk and blend until a smooth paste. Then transfer the paste to a non-stick pan and cook over low heat for about 8-10 minutes, constantly stirring and fold up so it won't stick to the base. This method is called Shing in Vietnamese. It helps to release water in the fillings and also help the sugar to incorporate better into the mung bean paste. Then you want to add 50 ml of vegetable oil gradually into the mung beans while mixing well. Also add the shredded young coconut and mix in. When the mung bean paste is formed into a dough and it's no longer stick to the pan and it's dry to the touch, you can take off the heat, leave to cool and wrap in a piece of saran wrap so it won't dry out. Next, in a clean non-stick pan, dissolve sugar with about 1 cup of water over medium heat. When the sugar is well melted, add the soaked green sticky rice and mix vigorously over low heat. It will take about 8-10 minutes. When it's cooked, the cornflakes break up and it turns quite mushy and very, very sticky. You should have prepared about 6-8 square pieces of plastic in size of 15x15cm and grease the surface with some vegetable oil to prevent sticking. When the corn is cooked and still hot, scoop out a spoon and spread onto the greased piece of plastic wrapper. It's mega sticky, so please bear with me. Then you can divide the filling into about 40g portions and shape and flatten into a piece of about 5cm in diameter. Then place the filling portion into the center and fold up the plastic wrap so that the green part will fully cover the filling. Shape and fold each corner of the wrapper in and you get a really nice square piece of bánh cón. This is so much easier to shape when the sticky rice is still hot. When it's cooled, it's not as sticky and it's a lot more difficult to shape. So look at that! Oh my god! I can't believe that I could make this at home. It is surprisingly not too difficult at all and the cake stays in shape and it has this elegant smell of cơm and bánh đen. When you have a bite, it's just so good. It's mildly sweet and it just tastes amazing. I hope you're gonna give it a try and if you do, please share with me your photo on Instagram by inserting hashtag HelenRecipes. Also subscribe to my channel for more amazing Asian desserts like this and also Vietnamese food. Click like and click the bell button if you want to be notified next time my new video comes out. I will see you then next time. Thank you for watching. Bye bye!