Phu The Cake

Phu The Cake

 Banh Phu The" (Husband and Wife Cake) is a Vietnamese sweet with a jelly-like texture made of tapioca flour, pandan, mung bean paste, sugar, sesame seeds and coconut milk. It is very unique with a leaf covering that looks like a tiny square box, made from coconut leaves. The reason it is called "Phu The" is the way it is wrapped: a box on the top fits perfectly with the box on the bottom. If you would like to know how to make this special cake, you can visit Dinh Bang - a famous Vietnamese village in Bac Ninh Province, then you will have chance to experience the method to prepare this husband and wife cake, as follows:

 Ingredients

•  1kg kudzu powder, refined
• 800g refined sugar
• 200g coconut flesh, scraped in thin threads
• 300g green beans 
• 50 coconut leaves 
• 15 pineapple leave

To prepare

Filling

• Cut green beans in halves; soak in warm water for five hours. Strain and remove skin of green beans. Rinse.
• Steam green beans and grind into a paste.
• Mix green bean paste with 200g sugar, then cook over a low flame and stir until the mixture loses its sticky texture.
• Spread the mixture 3cm thick on a large tray, cool and cut into 6x6cm square pieces.

Cover

• Wash and clean pineapple leaves and cut into 60cm strips so that only the middle remains.
• Arrange the coconut leaves into a square or hexagonal shape to form a box roughly 25x30cm wide and place a pineapple leaf on top.
• Dissolve the kudzu powder and remaining sugar in water. Use two and a half time as much water to the amount of powder.
• Cook over a low flame, stirring until the mixture becomes a paste. Extinguish flame, add threads of coconut flesh and mix well.
• Fill the coconut leaf boxes with the coconut flesh mixture and place the green bean filling in the centre.
• Put the boxes in the steamer and cook for 20 minutes, until the cake becomes clear. 

"Banh Phu The"is a lot more interesting in texture and flavor. In the real one, the cake has it green color and flavor by being steamed inside its box.

Source:  vietnamdiscovery.com