Banh Gai in Khong village has long become a famous specialty of the Ha Tinh people. The demand for consumption at the end of the year is high, and the households here have to work day and night to make enough goods to sell.
The Lunar New Year is coming to Khong village, Duc Yen commune, now belongs to Hung Dung residential group, Duc Tho town, Duc Tho district, Ha Tinh province with the famous batches of delicious gai cake, the red cake ovens with fire. day and night.
Ingredients for making Gai cake include hemp leaves, glutinous rice flour, green beans, molasses, and copra. To make a delicious Gai cake, there are many stages to go through.
First, after drying, the hemp leaves are put in a pot to boil for about 2 hours, then continue to be washed. In the next step, the worker grinds the hemp leaves into a powder, then mixes it with glutinous rice flour and molasses, forming a black mixture with a sweet, aromatic taste.
“What makes this cake different is the taste of hemp leaves. Girl’s leaf powder mixed with glutinous rice flour and molasses gives a very special flavor”, said Ms. Nguyen Thi Nho (SN 1964, resident in Hung’s residential group). Dung, Duc Tho town) said.
The green beans for the filling of the cake must be round, yellow, and friable seeds. Once cooked, green beans are mixed with copra, and squeezed into small balls.
The cake, when stuffed and covered with dough, looks like the bullets used for old cannons.
The cake is wrapped with dried banana leaves, tied tightly, then put in a steamer in a water bath for about an hour.
Nguyen Thi Nho’s family has been working as a baker for nearly 40 years. Currently, her Gai cake factory is hiring 10 workers, with an income of 4-5 million VND/person/month. Every day, her family’s establishment supplies thousands of cakes to the market.($1=24,000 VND)
Pham Thi Huong (68 years old) said that since she was a child, she has seen her grandparents and parents make this kind of cake. “Now it ( banh gai-PV ) is a specialty, everyone buys some cakes everywhere as gifts. Especially, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, the demand to buy Gai cakes is more and more,” said Ms. Huong.
Cooked cakes are placed in styrofoam boxes, waiting to be distributed in many shops and agents in the district and province at the price of 3,000-5,000 VND/piece. Gai cake is a cold cake, that can not be eaten hot because when peeled off, the cake will stick to the leaves and hands. Experiencing many ups and downs, Banh Gai in Khong village still retains its own flavor, often bought as gifts by people when they are away.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoi, Chairman of the Farmers’ Association in Duc Tho town, said that this craft village has a long history. Currently, there are nearly 30 households maintaining the profession.
Gai cake is made all year round, but the most concentrated is from August to December of the lunar calendar. Gai cake is a delicious and famous specialty in Ha Tinh. On average, every day, the village of banh gai in the village of Khong exports thousands of cakes to the market.
“In 2022, the Banh Gai village of Khong village will be recognized as a traditional profession by the Provincial People’s Committee. The profession has been handed down from grandparents, perhaps more than 100 years now. The job not only brings high income to households. which contributes to creating jobs for many local workers, ” said Ms. Hoi.
According (Dan Tri)