Rich flavor of Thanh Chuong pickled cucumber

(Baonghean) - No one knows when nhut was invented. Many people believe that the origin of nhut started from frugality. The countryside has a harsh climate, with the Lao wind in the season and torrential rains and floods in the season, so people's lives are difficult in every way. In March, when the harvest is limited, rice is scarce, and there are times when hunger is so great that people think that just having something to eat to survive is good enough, and don't ask for anything delicious or bad. And during the famine of the year, the only things available in Nghe An's countryside are sweet potatoes and green jackfruit. Sweet potatoes are used as food instead of rice, while green jackfruit is processed into salty food.

In my hometown, every house has jackfruit. Jackfruit grows in clusters and forests on hillsides; jackfruit grows in home gardens, at least a few trees, at most a few dozen trees. Every house has jackfruit. Jackfruit is full of fruit. But jackfruit only grows once a year, so people think of salting it to eat gradually. The dish of pickled jackfruit has been formed and has lived with the people of my hometown since the time of poverty until today. That is why there is a saying: "Meat and fish - flower fragrance, pickled eggplant - family tradition".

My grandmother, who is 85 years old this year, said: “I don’t know when nhut first appeared. When I grew up, at the age of 13 or 14, when I was holding a knife firmly in my hand, Thanh Chuong girls were taught by their mothers how to make nhut. Whether a jar of nhut is delicious or not is one of the criteria to evaluate a girl’s ability to do her job, and is a strong criterion for men to choose a wife!”

Around the third lunar month, when the young jackfruits are hanging on the trees and the thorns are less sharp, it is also the time when women, mothers, and sisters prepare to pickle pickles. The jackfruits chosen to make pickles are usually soft, slightly long and tapered for ease of processing. In particular, the jackfruits must be neither too young nor too old to make pickles that are delicious.

Jackfruit is picked fresh from the tree, peeled off the thorny outer skin under running water (to prevent the sap from sticking to your hands). After peeling, place the jackfruit in a large tray, use a knife to chop it evenly, then cut it into strips from the outside in, so that the fibers, segments, and seeds are all chopped into long strips. After cutting, soak it in rice water to remove the sap, until the jackfruit fibers are no longer bruised or black, and become smooth and white, then mix with salt, so that the jackfruit fibers soften and the saltiness is absorbed evenly.

The process of mixing pickled cucumber with salt

Finally, put the jackfruit in a jar with chili, lemongrass, galangal and a few small pieces of sugar cane, then use a bamboo fence to press it down tightly, use clean stones to block it from floating on the water surface, which will turn black again. After a few days, you will have a delicious pickled jackfruit dish in your meals. There is also a type of pickled jackfruit made from ripe jackfruit fibers. After eating the segments, the jackfruit fibers are used to make pickled jackfruit. The fibers are scraped off, separated from the thorny skin, washed, shredded, mixed with salt, and a little lemon leaves, chili, lemongrass, and tied tightly with areca spathe. The ripe jackfruit is cut into round slices, dipped in fish sauce and garlic. The pickled jackfruit is as golden as fried chicken egg slices. When I was a child, I was "unhappy" many times because there were eggs on my family's dinner tray today. It turned out that it was just "jackfruit fiber pickled jackfruit dish" that we ate every day...

Nhut feeds the people of my hometown. Farmers are “full and warm” thanks to nhut; many children grow up from meals of nhut... “Thanh Chuong has salty nhut, sour eggplant” as if to express the poverty, hardship, and hardship of the people of Thanh Chuong. “Salty nhut”, a clumsy new saying that “you criticize”?!

Now, the life of my hometown people is less difficult. In every family meal, nhut still contributes to create a unique flavor. Nhut is like pickled cucumbers, pickled eggplants of people in other places and like kimchi of Korea. Now that "the village has become a city", the garden land is gradually shrinking, jackfruit is cut down a lot because the economic benefits are not high. Only in mountainous areas such as Thanh Huong, Thanh Duc, Phong Thinh, Cat Van, Hanh Lam... jackfruit is still abundant. And not every family makes nhut like before.

Nhut has become a commodity sold in the countryside market in baskets and trays; displayed at stalls and counters in large stores in town... The way to prepare Nhut is therefore more diverse. Dried Nhut is dipped in fish sauce with garlic, eaten with perilla leaves. Eat slowly to feel the salty taste of Nhut, the spicy taste of chili, the sweetness of sugar and young sugarcane, the rich taste of peanuts, the fragrant, pungent taste of perilla leaves, the chewy, crunchy Nhut strands, nothing is better. More attractive is the dish of Nhut salad with pork belly, various herbs, roasted peanuts, sesame rice paper, adding spices, fragrant. In winter, people often stir-fry Nhut with pig ears or pork rinds; in summer, there is Nhut soup with sour fish.

More attractive is the pickled pork belly salad. Squeeze the pickled pork belly out of the earthenware jar, boil the pork belly until just cooked, put it in a bowl of boiled water to cool, cut into small pieces, herbs (basil, perilla, lemon leaves, hot pepper), crushed roasted peanuts, sesame rice paper, add spices, mix well and you have a salad. The sour taste of pickled pork, the fat of meat, the richness of peanuts and the aroma of spices seem to awaken all the taste buds of the eater. That's why pickled pork salad becomes an appetizer in meals, especially drinking parties of the country people.

In winter, stir-fried pickled vegetables are an indispensable dish in meals. But stir-fried pickled vegetables are only "authentic" when stir-fried with lard. Fry the lard until it becomes liquid, add shallots and saute until fragrant, add the seasoned pickled vegetables and stir quickly, remove from heat and add the chopped lemon leaves and stir well. When it's cold, coming home from work, smelling the fragrant smell of stir-fried pickled vegetables, my stomach is rumbling and I want to immediately jump into the tray. Lifting a bowl of steaming sticky rice with chopsticks of stir-fried pickled vegetables, outside it's drizzling and windy, I feel a warm family meal. The sour and salty taste of pickled vegetables mixed with the rich taste of lard and the aroma of shallots makes me want to keep it on my tongue and inhale it forever. And so, for those who are far from home, every time winter comes, when the cold seeps into every piece of flesh, I feel homesick. At that time, I just wanted to go home, go home quickly, just to have a hot meal with stir-fried pickled vegetables with my parents, to feel the warmth of family, to gain strength and then get busy with the hustle and bustle of life...

In the summer, there is sour fish soup. Tilapia, catfish, snakehead fish, and crucian carp are cooked with pickled fish, and it is delicious beyond reproach. Grill tilapia and snakehead fish, peel off the scales, remove the bones, leaving only the pure white meat; stir-fry pickled fish, add water and simmer until the soup boils, add fish meat, add a few chopped betel leaves, and you have a pot of soup that is fragrant, slightly sour, and sweet. Add a little spicy chili, and eat with rice, it is delicious. More elaborate is pickled fish soup with crucian carp. Catch the crucian carp, put it in a tank of water for a few days, and do not feed it. Clean the fish's intestines, scoop it up, rinse it with clean water, put the whole fish while still alive into the boiling pickled fish pot, and add spices. Picked fish soup cooked this way has a strong fresh fish smell, fragrant and sweet. In my hometown, there is also pickled fish soup cooked with lac cuc (small peanuts, each with only one or two seeds). Crush the peanuts, boil until soft, add pickled fish, add a little water and bring to a boil. So you have a delicious sour soup, add a handful of chopped lettuce to eat with it, it's delicious.

Nhut is now also available in all large and small restaurants in the center of districts and cities. Nhut is considered the cleanest and safest vegetable, no pesticides, no preservatives, completely processed by hand. In addition, nhut is rich in fiber, so nhut is increasingly popular. Every tourist, when coming to Nghe An, when entering a restaurant, immediately orders nhut, after eating, do not forget to buy a few jars of nhut as gifts. Nhut follows Thanh Chuong people to all regions of the country. Now, going to Hanoi or Saigon, to Da Nang... you can easily buy Thanh Chuong nhut. Nhut is sold online, there are websites, Facebook social networking sites also advertise the brand "Thanh Chuong Nhut". The potential of raw materials is abundant, and is popular with many people, if the production technology process is improved, who knows, it will become canned food for export?

Nhut is packaged into boxes and sent to all regions of the country.

My mother, in the young jackfruit season, bought dozens of fruits, painstakingly peeled, washed, cut, chopped, and salted them. Then packed them into cans, into jars, and sent them by bus to her uncle and aunt who lived far away. "A penny's worth, a pound's worth", packed and sent by bus, and there the uncles and aunts drove a long distance to receive them. But that was a gift, the whole affection and care of the sister-in-law sent to her younger siblings... There were people who had been away from home for half their lives, only wishing to eat their hometown's salty pickled vegetables again. A relative of my friend went to Czechoslovakia to do business. He returned home every few years just because he missed the pickled vegetables. When he went, the only luggage he brought was a few plastic jars of pickled vegetables, and the plane ticket was hundreds of times more expensive than the value of the jars of pickled vegetables. Then he had a stroke, and in the last days of his life, he only craved a meal of pickled vegetables from home...

Wherever they go and whatever they do, the people of my hometown are still a little proud of being from the homeland. Nghe An is rich in love, and perhaps also because of its homeland?

Article and photos: THANH PHUC