The mixture of pumpkin shoots and chicken is one of the oldest dishes of the Ede people in Dak Nong Province. As a Salad dish, but not only mixing ingredients and seasoning into the dish, but the preparation of pumpkin bud with chicken mixture is also somewhat special, bearing the distinctive culinary culture color of the Ede people.
Pumpkin cord is planted in the garden by farmers. Fruit and pumpkin buds can both be processed into many attractive rustic dishes. The pumpkin bud is top of the pumpkin cord. For a long time, this vegetable has been processed by ethnic minorities into many simple, but delicious dishes such as boiled, fried, or mixed with meat soup…
The mixture of pumpkin with chicken meat
Pumpkin buds are using to make mixture with chicken, which has a slightly sophisticated way of processing. Therefore, families often make this dish during festivals than in normal meals. Ede women know how to choose the best pumpkin tops. The buds must be fresh, the leaves are green, the stalks are medium, and are still crisp when picking. The pumpkin bud before processing, need a little bit time to preprocess the fibrous portion of vegetable tops. Vegetables stalk are stripped of fiber (thin outer shell), leaves are crispy and easy to swallow when eating. Picking into segments about 5 to 7 cm, boiling pumpkin buds in hot water until they are done to a turn, take out and squeeze water out.
The ingredients of the chicken are very important, deciding the moreish flavor of this dish. The chickens are used should be wild or garden chickens. The most delicious one is the new young chickens, with about 1 kg weight. After cleaning, leave as whole one or smashed and then baked over the charcoal until the chicken become golden brown. All of chickens were raised by Ede Family are often free-range, their main food is young grass, insects and rice. So, their meat is chewy, firm, sweet and delicious. Remove the bones, tear the cooked meat into small pieces and pound it in a mortar. Then, adding the boiled pumpkin bud into and crush together.
The mixture of pumpkin bud and chicken meat is presented on the traditional Ede food tray during the festival.
Chives is also one of indispensable ingredient in this dish. Chive has a pungent flavor and a very special aroma. For the Ede people, Chives is not only help to create aroma and increase the flavor for dishes, but is also considered as a remedy for sniffle, headache, dry cough… Therefore, most of dishes from Ede people often use Chives, instead of onions or garlic. Chives is peeled off, mashed and oiled or put directly into chicken and pumpkin bud, add salt and seasoning into ingredients. At this time, need to lightly pound to get the crushed chicken mixed into pumpkin, but make sure that the pumpkin was not too crushed. The dish meets standard when the chicken is crushed, the pumpkin stalks are still green and with whole stem, the spices are evenly absorbed into the ingredients. The white chicken strands are blended into the pumpkin stem and leaves.
The pumpkin bud is crunchy, delicious, bring coolness to people when enjoying. The softness and deliciousness of chicken, with the sweet crunchy taste of the pumpkin stalk, the buttery taste of young pumpkin leaves make people hard to forget when enjoying them. The dish is also very nutritious with the combination of meat and vegetables. This is also a feature of Ede food with diversified and variety processed, and this is the combination of different ingredients.
Source: Baodaknong.org.vn (Đ.H translated)