Cốm, a delicacy of fresh rice grains, dances in the hands of the H’Re people, untouched by sun or peeling, blended with pork and chicken eggs for the exquisite taste of the new harvest season.

The H’Re people craft cốm from freshly harvested rice, untouched by sun or peel; mixed with pork, chicken eggs for the delight of the early season's bounty.

Cốm, a delicacy of fresh rice grains, dances in the hands of the H’Re people, untouched by sun or peeling, blended with pork and chicken eggs for the exquisite taste of the new harvest season.

In late March, the fields of Ba Tơ mountainous district, Quang Ngai province, are painted golden with the ripening rice of the Spring crop. Besides the usual rice varieties for cooking, the H’Re people set aside small plots to cultivate “striped” rice, a pure strain preserved through generations for making rice cakes, brewing liquor, crafting cốm…

Unlike rice cakes and liquor made from dried rice, cốm is crafted from freshly harvested rice, unpeeled, and not yet dried; as if time cannot delay the enjoyment of the pristine early season harvest, after three months of arduous cultivation.

This cốm dish also symbolizes the H’Re people's gesture of offering the first grains to young boys and girls coming of age. “Granny, is the cốm ready yet?/ The rice descends to the field; Granny, does the cốm exist yet?/ The rice has ascended to the plot; Granny, does the cốm exist yet?/ The rice has just been harvested,” 80-year-old Phạm Thị Thung from Teng village, Ba Thành commune, Ba Tơ district recites a lullaby.

In the olden days, to answer a child's question, the grandmother had to give three different answers before the harvest season arrived. There are only two harvest seasons in a year, Spring and Autumn. The lullaby recounts the story of a child waiting for gifts as a “magic spell” to lull H’Re mothers and grandmothers' children to sleep.

Bà Thung has lived through 160 rice harvests (two seasons a year), still strong enough to wake up early, go to the fields to cut rice with her granddaughter and then carry it home.

It's been a long time since bà Thung made cốm, but her feet, dancing as they thresh rice (to knock the grains out), are still as nimble as ever; her hands, whether pounding or stopping, are still agile, making her grandchildren marvel.

After threshing and winnowing the rice, removing the husks, bà Thung and her grandchildren put the rice in a pan to roast. About 10 minutes later, the rice is hot enough to crack the husks open, and she pours it into a mortar to pound. Roasting and pounding can be repeated 2-3 times until most of the rice has shed its husks. The final step is winnowing again to completely separate the husks and the rice grains.

Phạm Thị Y Hòa, 30 years old, bà Thung's granddaughter, is familiar with cốm since she was a child. She says cốm tastes best when the rice is fully ripe. At that time, the grains are easy to separate from the husk when someone stomps on them; after roasting, they are also easier to separate from the husk and grain.

The result of the preliminary processing is two dishes: cốm and cốm flour, with a gently fragrant scent, as if absorbing the essence of both the earth and the mountains.

Cốm flour is the husk and pounded sticky rice, often eaten with sugar like dry cereal.

Meanwhile, cốm nếp can be prepared into four dishes: dry roasted cốm or crispy fried with oil. If more effort is put in, chefs can make cốm wrapped in pork sausage and cốm sausage.

The process of making cốm wrapped in pork sausage involves thin slicing the sausage; beating eggs then stirring; coating the sausage with a layer of egg, a layer of crispy fried flour, a layer of cốm, then deep frying in hot oil.

As for cốm sausage, it's prepared by mixing pounded sausage with cốm; then frying. No sugar is used to prevent the cốm from burning.

Y Hòa personally cooked these dishes after bà Thung's initial processing. It's been a long time since she made cốm herself, occasionally doing so when guests visit. Y Hòa recalls that during her time, even until 12th grade, she eagerly awaited the new rice season to roast cốm, it was like a precious childhood gift in an era where there weren't many snacks.

The children who grew up with cốm nếp back then are now married with children of their own. But now, hardly anyone makes cốm for their children anymore. The gentle fragrance of the new cốm season has been replaced by bubble tea, snacks...

According to Phạm Linh/ Vnexpress

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Reference: Travel guide Mytour