Chè trôi nước, also known as Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup, is a beloved dessert in Southern Vietnam. These round glutinous rice balls are filled with sweetened mung bean paste and served in a rich coconut milk broth. In Northern Vietnam, a similar dessert called bánh trôi is enjoyed. Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup holds a significant place in Vietnamese culinary culture and is often served during festivals and ceremonies.
Introduction
The name “Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup” is thought to derive from the way the rice balls float in the boiling water during cooking. In the southern region, this dessert is also called “chè xôi nước.” In addition to the main rice balls, smaller balls called “chè ỷ” are also included, adding a unique texture and visual appeal to the dish.
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A bowl of Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup, with its mix of large and small balls, filled or unfilled, and its sweet and distinct flavor, is not only visually appealing but also offers a delightful aroma of glutinous rice.
The rich and sweet flavor of the coconut milk broth harmonizes with the spicy warmth of ginger in the sugar syrup and the nutty fragrance of sesame seeds and peanuts sprinkled on top.
Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup is often considered a purely Southern Vietnamese dish, but some believe it originated from a Chinese dessert called “tangyuan” or from a dessert called “chè ỷ” that was traditionally prepared during the winter solstice by the Trieu Chau people when they settled in the Mekong Delta in the 18th century.
Chinese cuisine features a similar dessert called “tangyuan,” which resembles Vietnamese chè trôi nước, but with a variety of sweet and savory fillings, often enjoyed during family gatherings like Lunar New Year, Lantern Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival.
How to Make Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup at home
Rice Ball Dough
Glutinous rice flour is an essential ingredient in making Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup. The starch component of glutinous rice flour contains up to 99.7% amylopectin (amylose accounts for only about 0.3%). When heated in water, amylopectin gelatinizes, making the dough translucent and very sticky, giving the dessert its characteristic texture.
In practice, a mixture of one part rice flour and nine parts glutinous rice flour is often used to give the rice balls a firmer structure, preventing them from becoming runny and maintaining their round shape.
To make delicious rice balls, it is important to choose new, uncolored flour that is free from sour, moldy, or insect odors. It is also recommended to choose flour made from new, flavorful, and fragrant glutinous rice varieties due to their higher amylopectin content.
Kneading
The glutinous rice flour is thoroughly kneaded with warm water until the dough reaches the desired consistency. The structure of starch molecules contains many hydroxyl groups, enabling them to bind with water and with each other. The kneading process helps these starch molecules aggregate more extensively, making the kneaded dough stickier and more elastic.
Additionally, heating promotes starch gelatinization, increasing the adhesive ability of starch molecules, so warm water can be used for kneading or the dough can be partially pre-cooked (about 5 minutes) and then kneaded with the remaining dough to shorten the kneading time.
To add variety to the rice balls and enhance the visual appeal of the dish, washed, chopped, and blended pandan leaves can be added to the dough during kneading to give it a green color and the characteristic aroma of pandan.
The amount of water added during kneading must be carefully controlled to ensure that the dough is not too runny, making it difficult to shape the rice balls. However, if the starch granules do not absorb enough water due to an inadequate amount of water, the adhesive ability of the starch molecules will be reduced, resulting in a crumblier dough structure.
During kneading, a small amount of salt can be added to flavor the dough and a small amount of sugar syrup can be added to increase the transparency of the dough.
Mung Bean Filling
Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup consists of a glutinous rice ball exterior filled with a mung bean paste filling. Choose fresh, unmoldy, and uncolored mung beans and soak them for about 6–9 hours to soften them.
The main chemical component of mung beans is also starch, so upon water absorption, the beans swell and soften due to the weakening of the bonds between starch molecules by water molecules.
As a result, the skin is easily removed when mechanical force is applied, such as strong rubbing. Additionally, the softened beans cook faster and require less energy. The bean skins are darker in color and mainly composed of cellulose, giving them a tough texture.
Therefore, the requirement for beans after soaking and washing is that the beans are soft and no skins remain. The presence of skins would detract from the overall mouthfeel of the final product.
Shortening Soaking Time
Soaking time can be reduced by using warm water. Additionally, the soaking water contains many dissolved nutrients that are ideal for microbial growth. Therefore, a small amount of salt can be added to the soaking water to inhibit the growth of bacteria that could cause the beans to ferment and become sour.
Cooking the Mung Beans
After soaking, the beans are boiled in water to soften and cook them. The desired outcome is beans that are not too dry or mushy and have no burnt smell. Therefore, the amount of water added during cooking should be neither excessive nor insufficient, and moderate heat should be used with frequent stirring.
Once the beans are soft and cooked, use a chopstick to mash or grind them into a smooth, sticky paste. Then, let the paste cool and shape it into small balls with a diameter of 2 – 2.5 cm.
Take a piece of dough and flatten it into a thin disc (about 1 cm thick). Place a mung bean ball in the center, gather the edges of the dough to enclose the filling completely, and roll it into a round ball.
Boiling
After shaping, each rice ball is gently dropped into boiling water and cooked until they float to the surface. During boiling, the starch molecules absorb more water and undergo gelatinization due to the heat. This creates a gel, making the rice balls more translucent and giving them a soft and slightly chewy texture.
Simmering
Sugar is dissolved in water in a pot, brought to a boil, and then the rice balls are added and simmered for 45 minutes to allow them to absorb the sugar syrup. When the chè is cooked, ginger is added to enhance the aroma of the sugar syrup. The sugar-to-water ratio depends on personal preference and can range from 35% to 45%.
The rice balls are boiled before simmering in sugar syrup to prevent the dough from becoming tough due to insufficient water absorption by the starch granules. Additionally, this step ensures that any un-gelatinized starch granules do not dissolve into the water, making the sugar syrup cloudy.
Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup will become firmer over time as the starch gel contracts and releases water. This is a phenomenon known as starch gel retrogradation. However, reheating will cause the gel system to absorb water and soften again.
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Coconut Milk
Coconut is a key ingredient that adds richness to all Southern Vietnamese desserts. Choose dry coconut for its higher fat content. Grate the coconut flesh and knead it thoroughly with water (about 300g coconut to 0.5 liters of water) to release the coconut components into the water. Strain the mixture to obtain the coconut milk.
This coconut milk is then simmered in a pan with a small amount of sugar until it thickens. The desired consistency and sweetness of the coconut milk can be adjusted to taste. Low heat and constant stirring are crucial during simmering to prevent scorching and browning of the coconut milk due to the presence of sugar, which can easily caramelize.
Additional Ingredients
Other auxiliary ingredients include roasted and coarsely ground peanuts, roasted and crushed sesame seeds, and peeled and julienned ginger to enhance the aroma of the final product.
Final Product
When served, the chè trôi nước rice balls are placed in a bowl with the sugar syrup, drizzled with coconut milk, and sprinkled with peanuts and sesame seeds. This dessert is often enjoyed with “xôi vò” (crumbled sticky rice).
Nutritional Value
Both glutinous rice flour and mung beans are composed primarily of starch, making Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup a fairly high-energy dessert or snack. The mung beans in the Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup have a cooling effect, which helps to counteract the warming effect of the sugar syrup.
Additionally, the Vietnamese Rice Balls Sweet Soup contains ginger, a pungent and aromatic root with warming properties. Ginger is considered a valuable medicinal ingredient that can help alleviate symptoms like fever, congestion, cough, and colds. Ginger also has various other benefits, with the most common being the treatment of digestive disorders such as nausea, bloating, and stomachache. It can also stimulate the appetite.
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