My mother isn't a touchy-feely person but we are close. We're food pals and though I check in with her on a regular basis, this week, I'm thinking a lot about what it means to be a parent. I don't have kids or even a pet but I do appreciate what it takes to be a good parent. I've told my friends many times that parenting is one of the hardest careers, which is why I am not a parent.
Mom has said that she and my dad did their best to raise us. They had tough times and thankfully, things turned out well.
Maybe it's because of our shared interest in food and the fact that I don't have kids. My mom and I share cooking tips and recipes. In doing so, we have stories about how food reveals certain things about culture and humanity.
She's 83 and still curious and open to new ideas (I recently gave her a pressure cooker and she adores it for making pho from the book!) Much of our relationship has developed in the kitchen. She seeded my food writing career in many ways and I wrote about how she influenced me in a Mother's Day story published this week at the Washington Post.
The story got me thinking about the kinds of treats that Mom loves to prepare to spoil us to this day. One of them is a pyramid-shaped northern Vietnamese dumpling called banh gio (“baan zaw” or “baan yaw”). Each is the size of an average orange.
The dough is made of rice flour and the filling includes ground pork, mushroom, and shallot. It's simple food, like any good dumpling. The banana leaf casing imparts pale green color and a charming grassy, tea-like flavor. I can eat two banh gio for breakfast, sprinkled with a dash of fish sauce, though I know I should stop at one.
Like when I was growing up, Mom still makes dozens of them and keeps them frozen for when we come to visit. My husband adores them too so she often sends extras home with us. They’re fun and delicious for a weekend brunch or lunch or afternoon snack. To me, banh gio is a Viet dumpling comfort food.
What about the name, banh gio?
Banh is the generic Viet term for foods made with flours, legumes and starches. For example, banh mi means bread made from wheat flour (mi) as well as the sandwich. Banh gio got its name because the dumplings were traditionally made by professional gio makers who prepared Vietnamese charcuterie, particularly the everyday mortadellalike pork sausage called gio (it’s often featured in traditional banh mi).
Leftover scraps of pork would be chopped up, cooked and employed for these dumplings. There would be banana leaf around from making the charcuterie. As my mom recounts, you'd go to buy your Vietnamese sausages from the gio vendor and picked up some banh gio dumplings too! A win-win situation.
In America, you'd find these dumplings at a Vietnamese bakery or deli, typically where you'd pick up sandwiches and other snacks. They're not a restaurant thing because the dumplings require a certain level of skill to fill, shape and fold.
No problem. My mom shared her banh gio recipe and gave me a tutorial.
Mom's banh gio dumpling folding video
Below is a video from 2009. Mom hasn't changed her technique she says. I remember that when we got to her house, she had her mis en place all ready to go. My husband just had to hit 'record.'
In order to form the signature pyramid shape, banh gio is traditionally wrapped in many layers of banana leaf. Banana leaf is hard to manipulate (in Vietnam, certain kinds of banana trees yield the best leaves for cooking) and my mom wanted to make life easier on herself, so she used foil along with the leaf. She's a modern woman.
Many Viet-American cooks use foil and banana leaf to shape complicated dumplings like banh chung Tet sticky rice cakes, which are shaped like adobe bricks. Aluminum foil is not a common household thing in Vietnam, but in America, it's darn useful for holding things together because it can be bent and keep its shape!
With the combination of banana leaf and foil, banh gio becomes totally simple to master. Watch my mom:
In case the video isn’t enough, use these these photos to help you wrap banh gio:
This is an unusual dough because it starts out as a batter and then you cook it so it may be molded. Vietnamese dumpligns like this one and banh nam (thin tamale-like dumplings from the central region of Vietnam) are made with partially cooked dough. When you make the dough, know that blending cornstarch with store-bought Thai rice flour helps the dough to firm up.
My mom can make two or three dozen banh gio at a time. You don't have to. Make a small batch and enjoy them. This banh gio recipe is her gift to you!
More from my mom
Her kitchen wisdom and tasty recipes!
- Garlicky Panfried Pork Cutlets - Thit Cot-Let (one of my childhood favorites)
- Honey Baked Ham with Red Wine and Orange (because she loves Honey-Baked Ham)
- My Mom's Kitchen Quirks (including how she uses the dishwasher as a storage area)
- Yule Log Cake (Banh Buche de Noel) (because it's never too early to eat holiday treats)
