Lunar New Year, Bánh tét, and Wonton Soup Recipe

How to stay warm during cold days

This year, Lunar New Year will take place on Wednesday, January 29, 2025. It will be the Year of the Snake. If you’re unfamiliar with Lunar New Year, I suggest doing some research online to educate yourself. In most Asian countries, this holiday is celebrated based on the lunar calendar rather than the solar calendar.

In Vietnam, it is called Tết, and if you were to visit Vietnam during this time, you would find much of the country closed as people celebrate with friends and family. Like many countries in Southeast Asia, we celebrate with red decorations and foods that are round in shape.

Frying Bánh tét

Yes, I ate all four of these myself.

One of my favorite foods is called Bánh tét (or New Year’s cake). These cakes can be purchased in either savory or sweet variations. They are made with mung beans and glutinous rice, with savory ones featuring a center of pork belly, while the sweet ones contain red bean paste. Bánh tét is wrapped in banana leaves, which give it a distinct and amazing aroma. While many people steam these cakes, I grew up eating them fried. The crispy rice paired with the buttery pork is a delightful contrast. A little soy sauce and pickled leeks make it a dish I crave every February.

My mother makes Bánh tét herself, but they can be easily purchased at most Chinese or Vietnamese markets during the Lunar New Year season. I imagine making them at home is equivalent to producing tamales — there’s nothing quite like a homemade tamale, and the same goes for Bánh tét. I haven’t tried my hand at making it because some things are just too labor-intensive. For instance, I make my own Peking duck, but only about twice a year because it’s a 48-hour process.

However, we did recently make our own wonton noodle soup, and I’ve included the recipe below. I can also share a recipe for Char Siu (Xa Xiu in Vietnamese). Together, they make a fantastic dish to serve on a cold day. An added bonus is that making wonton dumplings is a great way to get the family involved.

I hope your Year of the Snake is wonderful! I’d love to hear from you if you have a chance—drop me a DM and let me know what’s going on in your life.

Just a heads-up: the broth recipe takes at least three hours to cook, so it’s a good idea to start that first and then get your family involved in making the wontons.

Wonton dumplings/potstickers

• 1/2 pound ground pork

• 1/2 shrimp (peeled and finely chopped)

• 1 cup Chinese cabbage

• 3 ounces shiitake mushrooms, diced

• 2 cloves garlic

• 2 green onions

• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger (you can freeze the ginger ahead of time to make it easier to grate)

• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper

• 1 pack of wonton wrappers (will make 50)

• Dipping sauce if making potstickers

• Chili garlic sauce

• Soy sauce

• Note: You will have left over filing and if you wanted to make 100 you can. You can freeze the dumplings for another occasion.

Wonton Soup

• 1 pack of egg noodles (will serve 5 people)

• Baby bok choy

Soup recipe

• 2 lb pork bones

• 2 lb chicken bones (or 1 container of chicken bone broth)

• 4 quarts water

• 1/2 cup dried shrimp (soak in warm water for 30 minutes, drain then rinse)

• 1 small dried squid (soak in warm water for 30 minutes, drain then rinse)

• 2 white or yellow onions (roast whole at 400 F for 30 minutes or until oozing)

• 2 grams rock sugar

• 2 tablespoons salt

• 2 carrots peeled and roughly cut

• 1 daikon peeled and roughly cut

Toppings

• Green onions

• Jar of fried shallots

• Pickled jalapeños

Char Siu Pork

Ingredients

• One brick size portion of pork butt or shoulder

• 1 Cup Shao Hsing wine (Chinese cooking rice wine)

• 3/4 Cup light-soy

• 1/4 Cup Hoisin (make sure it has sweet potato puree in it and not the cheap stuff)

• 1/3 Cup fermented red bean curd (mostly the liquid)

• 1/2 Cup dark sugar (with molasses)

• 3 minced garlic cloves

• 2 Tablespoons minced/zested ginger

• 2 crushed star anise pods

• OR You can cheat and get the char siu package and all you have to do is add warm water and marinade over night. I’ve done both and it’s great.

• Marinade this over night if not using the sous vide method. If using the sous vide, no marination is needed. Fill the bag with the above ingredients with the pork.

Wonton prep

• Boil the wantons for 3 minutes for the soup.

Potstickers prep

• In a wok, put 2 tablespoons of oil with a cup of water. First steam the potstickers for 3 minutes covered, then uncover to boil off the water. If there is too much water you can spoon it out. Then they will start to fry and get crispy. Turn them over when they get brown.

Soup prep

1) Rinse and boil the pork bones. I like to rinse them in vinegar to clean them well. Cover them in water and add two tablespoons of vinegar. Let sit for about five minutes and rinse with water.

2) fill the bot with 4 quarts of water (or to cover the bones) then bring to a boil. Let the bones boil for about a minute then set it on medium or low to simmer. Then add the other ingredients.

3) You will have to let the broth cook for at least 3 hours to get it flavorful.

4) In a separate pot cook the egg noodles in boiling water for 45 seconds. Separate the egg noodles before putting them in. Take out the noodles or drain the pot in a colander and rinse with cold water.

5) Boil the dumplings for 3 minutes

6) Assemble the bowl with noodles dumplings, char siu, and other ingredients. Ladle the soup over the noodles. Garnish with green onions and fried shallots. Picked jalapeños add a delightful zest!

Char Siu Prep

• Sous vide method - sous vide pork at 145 °F for 8 hours

• Bake method - Preheat oven to 400°F. Place the pork on a wire rack with a pan underneath to catch the drippings. Roast for 30 minutes. Flip the pork and roast for another 30 minutes.

Both methods

• Prepare glaze: Combine honey and hot water in a small bowl until completely dissolved. Brush the honey glaze onto the pork with a brush. Place it back into the oven and turn the heat up to 450°F. Bake for 10 minutes on each side to get a nice caramelized crust.

If you made it to the end of the recipe, you can tell it is a time consuming dish, but a great way to start is just try one of these, for example the wontons. Then you can graduate to the char siu, which you can enjoy with rice or a baguette and soy sauce, and then finally the entire noodle recipe.

Enjoy!