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“Khâu nhục” Stewed pork dish from Lao Cai province, served with five color sticky rice.

Saturday, 09/20/2014 15:17
The Northern highland region preliminary round was held in Lao Cai City over two days on September 9th and 10th and delivered lots of surprises to diners.
“Khâu nhục” dish- Photos: Tuan Viet Vu

Among them, the “Khâu nhục” dish served with five color sticky rice and prepared by the team from Thai Hai tourism area of Dinh Hoa in Thai Nguyen province got special attention from diners.

To explain the name of the dish Chef Anh Lan Vu explained that it has to go through many stages of cooking. This requires a lot of skill such as deep frying, roasting fire, cooling in water then steaming for a few hours, until the pork becomes really soft and almost melts.

Because of this process with many challenging test therefore it is called “khổ nhục” which means suffering all the hard times but ethnic minority Tay and Thai people in the Northwest usually call it with local accent so it become “khâu nhục”.

There is another explanation, simply that “khâu” means steamed until it is almost melted and “nhục” means meat.

The bacon should be cleaned pricked all over with a needle then seasoned with cardamom juice, dried bamboo shoots, mushrooms, kaempferia galangal, cogon grass and a little ginger.

Chef Lan Anh explained that seasoning pork with cardamom juice and cogon grass will make the pork have a fresh, sweet taste and a natural aroma without using MSG or other artificial flavorings.

After seasoning, the pork is fried until the skin is crunchy. It is then soaked into a cold water so that the skin and the meat soften. The skin is then deeply scored and seasoning is rubbed into the scores.

The “Khâu nhục” is best if it is steamed in a wooden steamer for 4 to 6 hours following the tradition of the Northwest people. The spices will be absorbed deeply into the fibers of the pork.

Nowadays there is also another way to make this dish. After boiling, the pork can be cooled in beer instead of cold water which softens the meat quicker.

According to tradition, the Tay people make “Khâu nhục” for special occasions such as wedding, traditional holidays and festivals. It is served with five color sticky rice. The “Khâu nhục” melts into the sticky rice making a truly delicious meal.

“If this dish is served with banana flower salad then this will be three typical dishes that you can find anywhere in the Northwest area” said Chef Anh Lan Vu.


Five colors sticky rice - Photo: Tuan Viet Vu

Five colors sticky rice is made using rice grown in Dinh Hoa, Thai Nguyen Province. It has a very good aroma and is very soft. The five colors are created using natural coloring. It is sometimes called “Five element sticky rice”

Sticky rice symbolizes the harmony of earth and sky, bringing good luck and health: green (the symbol of trees) comes from the purple magenta stamen mixed with the ash of burned rice straw, yellow (the symbol of land) from turmeric, purple (symbolizing water) from purple magenta flowers, red (the symbol of fire) from red magenta plants and a little wine, and white (symbolizing metal) is the original color of the sticky rice itself.

The unusual thing is that all of these five colors are steamed in the same steamer but each keeps its own color..
 

Followed byTuan Viet Vu
Tuoi tre Newspaper

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