Preparation

3 hours
Processing

45 minutes
Difficulty

Medium

Ban It is a cake traditional to the Vietnamese people and often appears during many holidays or special occasions. With a chewy skin combined with a filling of coconut and mung beans, this type of cake is very loved. Today, let’s join TasteVN to the kitchen to learn how to make Ban It with purple leaves and taro to change the taste for the whole family!

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1 Prepare the ingredients

2 Cook the mung bean and coconut filling

Ingredients for Making Ban It with Purple Leaves and Taro For 12 cakes

Glutinous rice flour 400 gr Tapioca flour 2 tablespoons Mung beans 100 gr Grated coconut 100 gr Taro 200 gr Purple leaf water 150 ml Cooking oil 1/2 cup (rice bowl) Sugar 150 gr Salt a little Banana leaves a little

How to Choose Fresh Ingredients

How to choose good taro

Size: Choose taro roots of moderate size, not too large and not too small.
Shape: Choose taro roots that are round and egg-shaped, with rough skin and many fibrous roots, and dirt clinging to the skin.
Color: Choose taro with an outer skin that has many eyes (dents), and the inside has many purple or dark red veins; this indicates that the taro will be sticky and delicious. If the outer skin is smooth, the taro will often be hard.

See details: How to choose good, non-stringy taro

How to choose delicious sticky rice

Choose sticky rice grains that are large and uniform in size, opaque white in color, with a smooth exterior and intact grains, not broken.
Avoid selecting grains that are dusty, have mold, or are yellowish.
In addition, good quality sticky rice will have a natural, characteristic aroma similar to rice. Conversely, sticky rice that has been stored for a long time will often lose its scent and will not retain its deliciousness when cooked.
You can taste the sticky rice; if it has a slightly sweet taste and no strange odor, it is good rice.
You can refer to good types of sticky rice such as: yellow flower sticky rice, Tu Le sticky rice, Dien Bien mountain sticky rice, goose sticky rice, and velvet sticky rice.

Ingredients for the dish Bánh ít lá cẩm gân khoai môn

Tools needed

Steamer, pot, bowl, spoon, chopsticks,…

How to make Bánh ít lá cẩm gân khoai môn

1

Prepare the ingredients

First, rinse the mung beans and soak them until soft for 2 – 3 hours.

Next, peel the taro, wash it clean, and shred it into thin strands. Then, place the taro in a pan and stir-fry on low heat for about 10 minutes until the taro wilts and shrinks, then turn off the heat.
2

Cook the mung bean and coconut filling

Then, drain the soaked mung beans and put them in a pot. Next, add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a little water just enough to cover the beans. Cook the beans over medium heat for about 20 – 25 minutes until soft and the water is evaporated.

At this point, add 50g of sugar to the pot and use a ladle to stir until the sugar dissolves and the beans become soft and thick, then turn off the heat.

Next, add 100g of grated coconut and continue to stir until the filling mixture is well combined and dry.
3

Cook the syrup

Place a new pot on the stove, add 100gr of sugar, 100ml of water, a little salt, then boil until the sugar dissolves, then turn off the heat.
4

Mix the dough

Add 400gr of glutinous rice flour, 2 tablespoons of tapioca flour, and shredded taro into a large bowl, then mix well. Next, gradually add 150ml of pandan leaf water to the flour mixture, adding while mixing.

Then, slowly add the hot syrup that you just cooked into the flour bowl, mix until the ingredients stick together. After adding all the syrup, use your hands to knead the dough until it forms a smooth and pliable mass.

Finally, cover the dough tightly and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Tip: To ensure the dough is soft and does not melt, you must use the syrup right after cooking, do not use cooled syrup.
5

Wrapping the cake

Divide the dough for the cake skin and the filling into about 12 portions and then roll them into balls.

Next, use your hands to flatten the dough slightly, place the filling in the center, and then pinch the edges of the dough closed. After that, coat the cake with a layer of cooking oil to prevent sticking.

For one cake, you will wrap it in 2 layers of banana leaves: 1 small banana leaf measuring about 20x40cm and 1 large banana leaf measuring 30x40cm.

Roll the small banana leaf into a funnel shape, then place the cake inside and fold the edges of the leaf neatly. Place the cake on the second layer of banana leaf, positioning the top of the cake according to the angle of the banana leaf.

Fold the top part of the leaf down, then fold the two sides tightly twice. Finally, neatly fold the bottom edge of the cake to complete the wrapping.

Repeat the above steps until all the cakes are wrapped.
6

Steaming the cake

Finally, arrange the cakes in a steamer, place the steamer over a pot of boiling water, cover it tightly, and steam the cakes over medium heat for about 40 minutes.
7

Finished Product

The purple taro leaf cake has an attractive color and a light fragrant smell. Tasting a piece will immediately reveal the soft, chewy outer layer, with the savory taro flavor intermingled with the sweet, fatty green bean and coconut filling, making it very appealing.