Mainland Southeast Asia · Volume 61, The Dry Bowl, the Ash Noodle and the Jar Drunk Through a Reed
Bánh bao bánh vạc
Hội An
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 50 sources in the brief
One family's dumpling for seventy years, written up by the town's heritage office, which gives the method, the fillings and a steaming time of ten to fifteen minutes and no amounts. The rice is ground with Bá Lễ water, the office says, and its two pages disagree on whether the wrapper is glutinous rice flour or plain rice soaked and ground and kneaded many times.
As tradition built it
Makes a steamer's load.
Ingredients
The tradition's method, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them.
- rice, soaked, ground and kneaded many times, or glutinous rice flour
- shrimp, chopped, for the bánh bao
- shallot, for the bánh bao
- to taste pepper, for the bánh bao
- shrimp paste, for the bánh vạc
- bean sprouts, for the bánh vạc
- wood ear, for the bánh vạc
- bamboo shoot, for the bánh vạc
- minced shallot, for the bánh vạc
- pork cut small, for the bánh vạc
- for garnish fried shallots
- fish sauce, for the dip
- shrimp broth, for the dip
- to taste lime, for the dip
- to taste chilli, for the dip
Method
- Make the dough: rice soaked, ground fine, pressed and kneaded until it is smooth and will roll thin.
- For bánh bao, mix the chopped shrimp with shallot and pepper. Press small pieces of dough thin, set a little of the filling on each and pinch the edges up like petals.
- For bánh vạc, roll the dough, fill with the mixture of shrimp paste, bean sprouts, wood ear, bamboo shoot, minced shallot and pork cut small, and fold the edges over like the handles of a sedan chair, which is what vạc means.
- Steam 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm with fried shallot over, and a dip of fish sauce sweetened with shrimp broth, lime and chilli, neither salty nor sweet nor bland.
What a modern chef changes
The dough made to roll, the dip made from the shells
Rung 2
Method
- Make the dough from rice flour and a little tapioca with boiling water, rested an hour, which rolls thin without tearing and is the closest a kitchen without a stone mill gets to the kneaded rice.
- Roll the petals on a lightly oiled surface with a small pin and shape them over a thumb; a dumpling press makes a dumpling and not a rose.
- Build the dip on a shrimp shell stock, reduced, with fish sauce, sugar, lime and chilli, balanced until none of the four leads.
- Steam on banana leaf or oiled paper, 10 minutes, and serve within five; the wrapper stiffens as it cools.