If in the past, Vietnamese people only knew about lotus root soup with various types of meat and health benefits, now, people prefer new, delicious, and more beautiful dishes. At the beginning of this year, the snack market appeared a crispy dried lotus root filled with delicious jam.
The lotus roots are carefully selected from high quality lotus from Dong Thap, peeled, cut into thin circles, deep fried and then dried by a special dryer. The oil is filtered during the heat drying process, keeping the lotus slices dry and crispy, but still intact, not crushed. The aromatic filling is carefully smothered with malt, spread between 2 slices of dried lotus. The piece of lotus root cake sandwiched with pineapple is delicious, crispy and full, symbolizing fullness.
In addition to dried lotus root with pineapple filling, lotus root jam is also well received. Lotus root is temperate, very easy to water, shriveled, lost, deformed in the process of absorbing sugar and encountering high temperature. To make a batch of intact and beautiful lotus root jam is very elaborate. Therefore, the price of this beautiful delicacy is not cheap, but in return, lotus root jam has a plasticity, a fleshy taste… eats off similar jams (tapioca jam, potato jam…).
| Frugal braised lotus root – a delicious dish on the occasion of the full moon |
In addition, lotus root is also created into a very tasty snack. Thinly sliced lotus root, sprinkled with a very thin layer of flour, fried until golden brown and shaken with cheese powder. This is a delicious – nutritious – cheap dish, easy to make, so it is very popular with housewives, can be made for children at home at any time.
In parties, lotus root has automatically become an eye-catching delicacy with many variations: lotus root salad with shrimp and meat, lotus root squeezed with beef, lotus root sandwiched with fish, lotus root sandwiched with minced meat and dipped in soy sauce chilli…
This year’s Full Moon Festival, the menu of many families’ offerings to the full moon and Buddha’s feast has many frugal vegetarian dishes cooked from lotus root. Lotus root stewed with red apple, shiitake mushrooms, tofu … cooling. Vegetarian braised lotus root with ky tofu, lotus seeds, carrots, coconut water, straw mushrooms… delicious and rich. Lotus root is also favored by vegetarian restaurants in the list of top delicious dishes, such as deep-fried lotus root soaked in sesame salt.
The lotus root tea with red apple sugar and chia seeds, in addition to the meaning of praying for luck, is also a gentle beauty tea to help women add color …
Not only the dishes, the lotus root also “competes” with the lotus heart in the tea category: fresh lotus root is thinly sliced, dried, roasted and then ground. A cup of lotus root tea, brewed at the right temperature, will help the body purify the lungs, nourish the blood, which is very good for women.
Lotus root is like a tonic that we need to exploit and take advantage of properly. Nature has given people a lot of good food as good as “panacea”, like this tuber that is buried in this muddy soil all season.
Tran Huyen Trang
(Photos from the Internet)