The book “Nostalgia of Tet Jam” contains many interesting things about traditional Vietnamese jam.
“Nostalgia of Tet Jam” – the book introduces readers to how to make traditional jam dishes for Tet holiday for a Vietnamese family.
Delicious ginger, squash, lotus seed, kumquat, custard jams… are all carefully guided in this book from the selection of ingredients to the stage of preliminary processing and implementation; and most importantly, the tips are “given” by the authors to readers to have beautiful and delicious products. At the same time, readers can listen to the authors’ “nostalgia” about jam flavor in the old New Year.
Author Nguyen Thi Phien shared: “I remember the old days near Tet in Hue. It was still cold, drizzly incessantly. My mom has prepared for us jars of ginger and orange peel jams, both keeping body warm and serving as desserts good for digestion. At that time, the different warmth is always radiating from the kitchen, that is, from jam pans heated from the beginning of December to be available on Tet”.
“I still remember the scent from those pans of jam, sometimes the pungent scent of ginger, sometimes the fragrant scent of pineapple, sometimes the cool scent of kumquat, sometimes the smell of smoke from the coal stoves. Whenever I remember those memories, I feel touched, even though there is no coal stove on fire right now”
Do Thi Phuong Nhi said, “Although I assisted to make lots of jam, the assistant is still an assistant. When starting, I knew that it is very meticulous to make a batch of jam, from choosing to buy delicious and beautiful ingredients, ensuring the right time and manner of preliminary processing, in the end, the most difficult stage is finishing a batch of jam. There are many techniques hidden in it that can only be explored by myself”.
“And what will come will come: in the end, I did not know how to finish a batch of jam with a layer of powdered and dry white sugar as my grandmother did. My jam pan kept wet, I put it back to ashes with smoldering fire and asked for help from my grandmother. When she saw my jam, she kept smiling and bluntly replied: pick the pan up, jolt evenly, sometimes use chopsticks to gently stir until the sugar becomes white powder to stop for sweet potato, squash, lotus seed jams. With ginger jam, it is more elaborate: separate the slices of ginger with hands and place them neatly, absolutely not make them curled, to show your ingenuity!”
Author Nguyen Thi Phien, born in 1945, currently living in Ho Chi Minh City, is an expert on royal dishes and traditional Hue dishes. She used to be the chef of many restaurants, teacher of traditional dishes and granted the title of “Golden Kitchen” by Vietnam Record Organization.
Author Do Thi Phuong Nhi born in 1967, currently living in Ho Chi Minh City, is a longtime lecturer in cuisine. These two authors jointly published the book “Delicious dishes of Hue”.
PN (review)