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Preparation
8 hours
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Cooking
2 hours 50 minutes
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Difficulty
Medium
Gai cake is made from two main ingredients: glutinous rice and gai leaves. This is a traditional sweet cake that has existed for a long time in many rural areas of Vietnam, originating from the Northern Delta region. Let’s join Into the kitchen with TasteVN to learn how to make this fragrant, chewy cake!
Ingredients for Gai Cake For 10 people
Glutinous rice 1 kg Dried gai leaves 200 gr Mung beans 300 gr Grated coconut 100 gr Dried banana leaves for wrapping 20 pieces Wood ash 3 kg White sesame 1 cup (small cup) Sugar 700 gr
How to choose fresh, delicious ingredients
How to choose fragrant, safe mung beans
- To buy delicious mung beans, you should choose those that have a bright green color, with a white spot on the belly, look fresh, and have a faint, natural fragrance.
- You should choose delicious mung beans that are oval-shaped, with rounded ends, shiny, and not scratched.
- Avoid buying mung beans that are too flat, misshapen, infested, have unusual colors, or have a musty smell, or a strong chemical odor as these are spoiled, low-quality mung beans.
How to choose good quality sticky rice
- Prioritize choosing rice that is not finely milled as it retains more fiber, minerals, and vitamins.
- To buy good quality sticky rice, choose rice with round, shiny grains, not broken, and without grains of different colors; when chewed, it should have a light sweet taste and aroma.
- Avoid selecting rice that is too white, moldy, or has a strange smell as it may have been bleached, flavored, and contain preservatives.
How to prepare Gai Cake
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Preparation of ingredients
Wash the sticky rice thoroughly, soak it in water for about 8 hours or overnight. Then, drain the rice and grind it into dry powder.
Squeeze the bitter water from the ash by putting the ash into a bag or basket with small holes, lined with a layer of cloth.
Next, pour the ash into the basket, add about 5 liters of water, and then extract the ash water from the bottom to use for cooking gai leaves.
Pour the extracted ash water into a large pot and place it on the stove. Add the dried gai leaves and cook until the leaves are soft, then remove from heat.
Drain the cooked gai leaves into a large basket to remove excess water and rinse thoroughly with clean water, then squeeze dry. Finally, take the drained gai leaves and place them in a pan or a large pot to roast until dry.
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Make the cake dough
To mix the cake dough, you put the dried roasted gai leaves, sugar, and 1kg of ground flour into the mixer, mix well until the ingredients are blended into a smooth flour mixture, slightly brown in color, and not sticky to the touch.
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Make the cake filling
Wash the mung beans thoroughly, soak them in water for about 2 – 4 hours, then steam them until cooked.
Next, place the cooked mung beans in a pan, add sugar, stir well, and cook the filling until the sugar dissolves completely, then turn off the heat and let it cool.
Finally, mix in shredded fresh coconut and stir well to complete the filling.
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Shaping and wrapping the cake
After kneading the dough, divide it into equal portions, add the filling in the center, shape it into a round ball, and roll it in a layer of sesame seeds to coat the outside of the cake.
Then you use dried banana leaves to wrap it about 3 times, fold the ends of the cake, and do the same with the remaining dough.
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Steaming the cake
Finally, you place the wrapped cake into a steamer pot, steam for about 1 hour to ensure the cake is cooked evenly.
After that, you take the cake out and place it in a basket, using a cloth to wipe off any remaining water on the banana leaf. Let the cake cool, and then you can enjoy it.
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Final Product
Delicious gai cakes with an attractive black skin after being cooked. The chewy, fragrant cake layer combined with the sweet, rich coconut and mung bean filling creates an extremely appealing flavor.
Product Information
Use a 24cm diameter steaming pot for quicker and more convenient meal preparation.
- Steaming Set includes 1 steaming basket, 1 pot with the same diameter of 24cm allowing you to comfortably prepare large dishes.
- 5-layer thick bottom, flat, wide, durable helps retain heat well, flat surface for easy cleaning.
- The pot body is made of shiny inox 201, with a heat-resistant glass lid that is aesthetically pleasing, easy to observe the food inside.
- Can be used on gas stoves, infrared stoves, induction stoves providing convenience suitable for all types of stoves.
TasteVN hopes that with the how to make gai cake suggested above, you will successfully make a soft, delicious, fragrant cake to treat your loved ones and friends on special occasions that everyone will love!
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