Encapsulating the taste of hometown in delicious Tet dishes

Delicious dishes on Tet holiday are an indispensable part of the reunion scene of many families. Besides the spiritual element expressed in the presence of the five elements in the Tet tray, Quang Tri people also skillfully choose familiar, rustic but no less fresh and delicious ingredients to prepare neat dishes to offer to grandparents, ancestors and treat relatives on the occasion of the New Year.

Tet meal of many Quang Tri people with typical, simple dishes - Photo: HT

Pickled shallots

Pickled shallots, a rustic and familiar dish on the trays of Quang Tri people every Tet holiday. Making pickled shallots is not difficult but requires a “trick” to keep the shallots from becoming mushy while still retaining their nutritional value.

Choose fresh white shallots, medium size, with a blooming stem, small, thin tails and a waist in the middle. Wash the shallots to remove dirt and then put them in a basin of water mixed with wood ash or lime water and soak overnight. If there is no ash, soak them in salt water, the soaking time will be shorter so that the shallots do not absorb the salt. Then take out the shallots, cut off the roots and leaves, be careful not to cut into the shallots, otherwise when pickling the shallots, they will lose their crispness and spoil quickly.

Continue soaking the shallots in ice water, then take them out and rinse them with water several times to clean them. Dry them in the sun for a day until they are slightly wilted. After drying, process the shallots again, peel off the shallot skin and any remaining dry roots. Next, heat a mixture of water, sugar, salt, and white vinegar. Turn off the stove and wait for the mixture to cool completely. Arrange the shallots in layers in a jar, pour the vinegar and sugar mixture over the shallots, and cover tightly. The shallots must be submerged in the soaking water to be white and delicious.

Therefore, you should use a bamboo strip or a plastic bag filled with cold boiled water and tie it tightly on top so that the pickled onions do not float to the surface of the water. Leave the pickled onions in a cool, dry place for about 5-7 days and you can enjoy the fragrant, crispy pickled onions, especially suitable when eaten with banh chung and banh tet during the traditional Tet holiday.

Pickled onions and beef tendon, an attractive dish often used during Tet - Photo: HT

Pickled onions are used to accompany dishes during Tet - Photo: HT

Pickled onions and pickled onions wrapped in leaves are sold in large quantities at Dong Ha market to serve people shopping for Tet - Photo: HT

In addition, the shallots can also be left with the leaves intact to make an attractive and equally delicious beef tendon pickled shallot dish. After buying fresh shallots, remove the roots and yellow leaves, wash and drain, arrange 3 or 4 green leaves and wrap them around the white shallots to make them neat and beautiful, then soak them in salt water for about 2 days and then take them out.

Next, the beef tendons are washed with rice water and boiled with crushed fresh ginger to remove the smell. When finished, take them out and rinse them with cold water, then cut them into bite-sized pieces. Mix the tendons and shallots with MSG, fish sauce, pepper, chili and a little dried shrimp. Season to taste, scoop the tendons and shallots onto a plate, then sprinkle with a pinch of crushed roasted peanuts and you can gather around with friends and relatives to enjoy and chat.

Meat marinated in fish sauce

With its distinctive delicious taste, meat soaked in fish sauce has become a traditional Tet dish for many people in Quang Tri. The main ingredient that must be carefully selected is meat. The type of meat soaked in fish sauce is also very diverse, including pork belly, beef brisket, pig ears... any dish that the family likes to eat. When the meat is boiled, it must be taken out and immediately put in ice water for about 15-20 minutes.

Because this is a simple way to help the meat pickled in fish sauce become firmer, crunchier and easier to absorb fish sauce. Next, the fish sauce making step is also very important. The mixture of fish sauce, sugar, and vinegar when put into the pot must be stirred well, simmered over low heat and watched carefully until the mixture is thick enough to be standard.

When pouring fish sauce into the jar, you also need to be skillful to just cover the meat, then add a few slices of garlic, pepper, chili into the marinated meat mixture to make it look attractive. When you have put all the ingredients in the jar, cover it tightly and leave it for 2-3 days to enjoy.

The fish sauce marinated meat can be eaten with pickled shallots, pickled vegetables or pickled cabbage, all of which are delicious, but the most suitable dish is a basket of fresh, young vegetables picked from the garden. The fish sauce marinated meat is special in that the fat seems to have melted and mixed with the fish sauce, so eating a piece of fat does not feel boring at all, on the contrary, the more you eat, the more "addicted" you become. Each piece of meat is clear with fat veins, has a very delicious salty-sweet taste, and is one of the delicious dishes on the Tet tray of many families.

brawn

According to the experience of many families in Quang Tri, the parts of the pig's head that can be kept for a long time and are most suitable for cold weather are head cheese, because they do not need to be refrigerated and will freeze automatically.

Because of its delicious flavor and natural crunchiness, many families' Tet meals cannot lack this dish. Making brawn is not too difficult, just prepare all the ingredients and a few basic steps to have a tough, crunchy brawn.

To make pork head sausage, first of all, you must pay attention to the preparation of the ingredients. When you buy the pig ears, tongue and head meat, wash them thoroughly and then blanch them in boiling water mixed with a little vinegar and salt for about 15-20 minutes to remove the odor, then clean and scrape off all the hair on the surface. Especially the tongue must remove all the white membrane on the surface of the tongue.

After blanching, remove the meat to ice cold water to make the meat firmer, more chewy, and crispy, then drain. Soak the shiitake mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms in warm water until they expand, cut off the stems, and wash thoroughly. Cut the tongue, ears, and cheeks of the pig, along with the shiitake mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms, into bite-sized pieces.

Then, season to suit your family's taste and let it marinate for about 30 minutes. When the spices have been absorbed, start the most important step of the brawn dish, which is stir-frying the brawn. First, put the pan on the stove, when the pan is hot, add a little lard or cooking oil to prevent the pan from sticking. Put all the prepared ingredients in the pan and stir quickly, the brawn must be stirred evenly and continuously so that the meat is cooked evenly and does not burn.

The final step in making a pork roll is wrapping it. When the pork roll is cooked, pour the fried meat onto several layers of washed, dried, and arranged dong leaves (or fresh banana leaves). String is spread under the leaves and wrapped around the outside.

Actually, this step is not different from wrapping banh chung or banh tet. When wrapping, pay attention to skillfully patting and pressing so that the ham is round and firm. This step requires the worker to be quick, wrap tightly, tie tightly and must be done while the ham is still hot.

In cold weather, just leave it outside for 6-8 hours, in hot weather, put it in the refrigerator for 8-10 hours and it's ready to eat.

The finished ham has a blend of the scent of the countryside with banana leaves, shallots, pepper and fragrant stir-fried meat. This dish can be eaten with rice or banh chung, or can also be used as a snack with alcohol during Tet.

Autumn Summer

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/goi-tron-vi-que-huong-trong-nhung-mon-ngon-ngay-tet-191403.htm