Vietnamese Tamale

Last week, our Foodies United club celebrated Vietnamese cuisine. About 35 of us brought together a variety of dishes that I would call a good sampling of the typical dishes often found at Vietnamese restaurants. Other than bringing what people are accustomed to, I thought I reach into my roots and bring something more homy.

I brought the Vietnamese tamale, otherwise known as Banh Nam. I always had this when I was a child, especially on special occasions, whenever my distant relatives came to visit. My mom made these, and I will share with you the recipe.

Banh nam is like a tamale made with a semi-cooked rice flour, topped with pork, and steamed in banana leaves.

Ingredients:

Rice flour paste
2 cups rice flour (not glutinous rice flour)
4 cups water
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 Tbsp oil

Meat topping
4-5 Black wood ear or cloud ear, soaked, cleaned, finely chopped
1/4 to 1/2 lb ground pork
1 scallion, finely chopped
2 small shallots, chopped
Salt and black pepper, to taste
1-2 tsp Sugar
1 tbsp Fish sauce

Banana leaves

Method:
To make the rice flour paste:
- Put the rice flour in a medium sauce pan and add water gradually to avoid lumps, stir till well mixed and smooth. Add salt and oil and stir to combine.

- Cook rice flour batter over low to medium heat, stir with a wooden spoon from time to time to avoid lumps. Cook until the batter starts to thicken into a smooth, white, opaque paste, 10 minutes.

If the paste becomes translucent, you've gone to far, and you need to restart. - Remove from heat, and set aside to cool.

To make the topping:
- Stir fry the shallot and scallions in a little oil, avoiding not to burn the shallots, over medium-high heat. Add wood ears and ground pork. Add salt, sugar, and fish sauce to taste. When fragrant, remove from heat and set aside.

Prep the banana leaves:
- Banana leaves can be purchased at your local Asian food market. They're usually in the freezer section. Before use, make sure you defrost it the night before. Be gentle with them as they are fragile if handled to roughly.

- Cut the banana leaves crosswise at a width of 5-6 inches. Cut leaves to acquire 35-40 rectangles. Rinse gently under cold running water while wiping the leaves with a damp paper towel. Stack onto a plate.

Putting it all together:
- With the banana leaf laid out before you with the long side facing you, wipe dry with a paper towel. Put a tablespoon of rice flour paste in the center and flatten it a bit.
- Put 1-2 tsp of the topping on top of the rice flour paste.

- Fold the long sides of the banana leaf over the paste into thirds, like folding a letter. Gently squeeze the paste with your fingers towards the ends such that the paste becomes 4-5 inches long, but still leaving about 1-2 inches of ends. Fold the ends under the pouch.
- Repeat with the remainder leaves.


At this point, you can either freeze them to cook some other time or you can steam them right away.

Steaming:
Lay the tamales in your steamer up to 3 layers at a time. Steam for 15 minutes. To check, take one out and look inside. If the tamale is not pasty and is firm, then they are ready to eat.

If you froze them, steam for 20-25 minutes.

Eat with fish sauce:
3-4 Tbsp fish sauce (I prefer the 3 crab brand)
Juice of 1/4 lime
1-2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
water

Mix the first 5 ingredients. Add enough water such that the sauce is just a slight less salty. If you prefer a little saltiness, add more salt.

Enjoy!!