Who doesn't know the folk song: "I miss my hometown when I go? Remember water spinach soup, remember soybean and soybean. Oh my gosh, this soy sauce and fish sauce, as if clearly pointing to the geographical area of Nam Dan, where there is Sen village (literally named Kim Lien), which was the place where President Ho Chi Minh buried the vegetables in the navel.
Nam Dan Tuong is made from familiar ingredients such as soybeans, soybeans, sticky rice, and salt. Soybeans are grown on arid fields because of the Lao wind along the Lam River, so the iron bean tree takes many days to bloom, bear fruit and create a long, smaller soybean growing elsewhere.
However, this soybean has a fairly solid structure, not broken when making soy sauce, still keeping the shape of the finished soy sauce unchanged and not "broken like Ban soy sauce" (a very famous soy sauce making village in Hung Yen province). And this soy sauce does not cause the sour smell like Cu Da village soy sauce (Hanoi).
Nam Dan people make soybeans from beans grown along the Lam River, so the flavor of soybeans is also very special. Nam Dan soy sauce enthusiasts write that standard Nam Dan soy sauce must be bright yellow or the color of the crow's wings. When eating, you must feel the cool flavor of the alluvium in each soybean seed.
The soybeans are dried, then roasted, peeled, ground in pieces and then put in a specialized pot to cook for 12 - 15 hours. The cool beans are poured into a jar of clean water for about 7 days. During this time, every morning and afternoon, the soy sauce maker has to use a 2m long bamboo stick to stir the soy sauce well for 10 minutes.
Delicious soy sauce depends on yeast, also known as mold. To make mold, soaked glutinous rice for 5-6 hours, put in a cooked pot, then spread evenly into NIA (great type of mother) into a thick layer of 2 - 3cm, sprinkle green tea water and mix well, cover longan leaves on top to incubate until the mold is fragrant, sweet, orange.
After a week, the mold was removed and crumbled, exposed to the sun and grinded, waiting for the day to recline. The mold is very difficult, so it must look at the weather and make a mold. Hot summer day, when spreading sticky rice on Nia, it must wait to cool down to cover the closed curtain. But in the winter of the month, it must be covered with fabric when sticky rice is still warm. That is good, but the landmark is good, the new is delicious.
After 7 - 9 days, seeing the beans and molds are satisfactory, then the soy sauce, the mold and the roasted salt in the jar. On average, each jar is about 100 liters, mix 6 pounds of landmarks and 17 pounds of roasted salt. Chum is similar after reclining in tall, airy, sunny places, marking the starting time.
Every day, you must open the jar lid, use a large bamboo chopstick to beat and contact the air. In the evening, closed the jars. Just like that, after about 1 and a half months, checking soy sauce to see ripe soybean seeds, soy sauce emerged. The whole process does not let the water get in, otherwise it will be damaged.
Tuong Nam Dan simply needs to see the face of soy sauce to know whether it is successful or bad, delicious or bad. The delicious stewed bean has a dark yellow color like honey or the color of the rooster wings, when poured, it is thick, giving off a fragrant, fatty, sweet and salty smell, the broken soy sauce is still deposited in the thick, thick water, the aroma is like a little wine, but sweet.
Tuong Nam Dan is as delicious as the longer it is left, like fish sauce or wine. Pour a bowl of soy sauce out to dipping in boiled water spinach, boiled sweet potato leaves or water spinach, which are delicious. Even if there is no food, just pour a few tablespoons of soy sauce into a bowl of cold rice to create a delicious "working family" dish.
Tuong Nam Dan has the characteristic of being whole soybeans, so it is also used to cook soy sauce or dishes such as soy sauce, steamed tofu, stir-fried clams, soy sauce mixture... very diverse and attractive. Tuong Nam Dan has created a unique flavor for Nghe An cuisine.
But Nam Dan soy sauce also creates a delicious dish worthy of treating distinguished and luxurious guests. It is a dish of tamarind (mermaid) boiled with soy sauce. The best tamarind meat is raised in the fields of Nam Nghia commune, Nam Dan district because it has a sweet taste due to its natural grass being eaten in the form of grazing.
The soy sauce to dipping is of course Nam Dan sauce, mixed with chopped fresh ginger, chopped fresh garlic, and cannot be without chopped roasted yellow peanuts or roasted black sesame to create a thick and sweet broth with the sweetness of the thinly sliced green banana, the sour taste of star fruit and the sweet and fatty taste of tamarind meat.
The tamarind meat is steamed again, with a light yellow, clear skin, very little fat, mostly a light brown thin layer that gradually turns light pink. The deliciousness of this tamarind meat depends on the bowl of Nam Dan soy sauce mentioned above, to the point that people affirm that if you eat Nam Nghia beef without dipping in Nam Dan soy sauce, you will definitely not eat it because it no longer has the soul of the famous steamed tamarind and tamarind with lemon.
Therefore, Nam Dan soy sauce is the main characteristic of this delicious dish, creating a "homely" and heartbreaking flavor.
