(VNF) - Green young rice (Cốm) is the traditional dish that is made only in autumn and cherished by all Vietnamese. For Hanoians, nothing evokes autumn feeling like the taste of green young rice.

The product has been recognized as a national trademark and is one of Hanoi’s best specialties.

Vong and Me Tri are the two Hanoi villages famous for making green sticky rice.

Green sticky rice can be made from several different types of paddy, but the most delicious is yellow flowery paddy.

Green sticky rice is often eaten by hand, directly from the lotus leaves, a pinch at a time. When eating green sticky rice, you must enjoy slowly and chew very deliberately in order to appreciate all the scents, tastes, and plasticity of the young rice which is sweet, nutty and buttery.

Besides “instant consumption”, young rice can be made into different dishes, including main course and desserts, snack. “Cốm xào” (stirred fried green rice), “Bánh cốm” (green rice cake) and “Chả cốm” (green rice sausage) are three exotic choice of “made from Cốm”’ dishes for tourists, if they arrive in Hanoi in autumn.

Bánh cốm (green rice cake)

Bánh cốm (source: Afamily)

The process of making green rice flake cake is meticulous. “Com”, used for making green rice flake cake, must be ripe and harvested at the right time. Otherwise, unripe “com” mixed with sugar will melt and cannot be used.

There are dozens of shops making and selling green rice flake cakes on Hang Than Street, whose names beginning with “Ninh”. According to many connoisseurs, Nguyen Ninh trademark is the oldest and most popular brand. Hang Than green rice flake cake is Hanoi’s specialty.

Foreign visitors to Hanoi enjoy this cake very much. Nguyen Ninh makes a few hundred of these cakes every day, most of them being pre-ordered. According to the family, making green rice flake cake is regarded as a way of keeping up their 5 generations’ old tradition, not a business.

In the fragrance of rice stubble, breeze and blue sky in October, it is great to enjoy green rice flake cake. Compared to other busy and modern streets, Hang Than, with its flavor of “com”, will always keep up the lasting beauty of Hanoi with its 1000-year history. Young glutinous rice and Hang Than green rice flake cake, Hanoi’s specialities, are widely loved.

Chả cốm (green rice sausage)

Chả cốm (source: Zing News)

Unlike other kinds of chả like chả rươi (nereididae sandworm omelette), chả cá (charcoal grilled fish) and chả mực (fried patties with squid eggs) which are mainly composed of aquacultural ingredients, chả cốm is mainly made of cốm and has the subtle scent of new rice. Other ingredients for the dish include lean pork and pork paste.

The meat to mix with cốm should be lean shoulder pork, which contains fat, so the taste will not become too dry or the dish get downsized on being fried. The mixture will then be added with salt, seasoning and delicious fish sauce. It will be left to absorb all the spices for less than ten minutes.

To preserve the original scent of cốm, no onion or garlic is added.

After that, the mixture is kneaded into small pieces and steamed from 15 to 20 minutes. Finally, chả cốm is fried until it becomes light brown on both sides. According to experienced cooks, instead of being placed on the plates, pieces of chả cốm should be arranged on lotus leaves to absorb the subtle scent of the lotus, the symbolic flower of Hà Nội’s autumn.

The qualified chả cốm must meet with several criteria, such as the skin is crisp, cốm inside soft and the fragrance of the grain mixed with lotus. It can be dipped into chilli or fish sauce to be eaten with cooked rice or rice noodle.

As the cốm season lasts only three months. The dish can be freezed in the refrigerator in large quantities for long-term use so chả cốm is available all year round. Especially, the sausage, together with bún đậu mắm tôm (fermented shrimp paste with fried tofu and rice vermicelli), has become one of Hà Nội’s most popular street foods.

The dish can be found abundantly in corners and alleys of the capital, but the most renowned stalls can be found in Phất Lộc Lane, Mã Mây or Ngõ Gạch Street.

Cốm Xào

Cốm xào (source: eva.vn)

While chả cốm is a great choice for the main course, cốm xào is a fantastic idea for dessert or for tea break.

While not as popular as other dishes made from the grain, cốm xào enchants the diners from the first bite.

For a more sophisticated version, the dish can be supplemented with thinned copra, which will enhance the buttery taste and crunchy feeling.

The cốm used to cook cốm xào must be made in early autumn, soft and plastic. Its colour is not too green but turns a little bit yellow and especially, it must have the scent of the new sticky rice.

Though the process of choosing cốm as its main ingredient is a bit strict, cooking the dish is not too difficult. Just needing to add sugar, thinned copra and coconut milk, the cook can get ready to make cốm xào.

Similar to chả cốm, as soon as it is finished, cốm xào needs to be wrapped in lotus leaves to absorb the subtle scent of lotus.

Like fresh young sticky rice flakes, the dish can also be enjoyed like a snack, with a hot cup of lotus tea./.

( VNF (compiled) )