Good mother guides to prepare a cozy and eye-catching offering tray for the Kitchen Gods

Before getting married, Ms. Thao often prepared offerings with her family members on Tet holidays, so making an offering on Ong Cong Ong Tao day was not too difficult for her.

Offering tray for Mr. Cong and Mr. Tao of Ms. Thao's family

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Because Thao still has to work during the day, in order to prepare a complete, beautiful and neat offering tray, the first thing she does is to plan a detailed menu and go to the market early to buy fresh food.

Next, Ms. Thao will divide the dishes into 2 groups. The first group is divided by cooking method, dishes using a stew pot, dishes using an air fryer, dishes using a stir-fry pan, frying pan, or steamer... The second group is divided into which dishes can be cooked in advance, which dishes need to be cooked hot when preparing for the offering.

“I will divide the offering tray evenly so that when cooking, I can cook many dishes at the same time, saving more time. For example, in this offering tray, there are stir-fried ham, braised fish, jellied meat, and bamboo shoot soup, which I can completely make the day before; the more the braised fish is cooked, the more delicious it is. For the stewed pigeon, put it in a pot and set the timer. For the meatball soup, you can prepare the meatballs in advance, just add them when cooking. So the hot dishes I need to make are fried spring rolls, fried shrimp, and boiled chicken,” the housewife from Bac Ninh shared.

Although shrimp takes more time to prepare than other dishes, it is a very popular dish on the table.

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Ms. Thao's offering tray for the Kitchen Gods is mostly familiar dishes, except for the fried shrimp dish which is more elaborately shaped. However, if the shrimp is prepared in advance, it only takes her 2 hours or less to cook this complete and neat tray.

Below is Ms. Thao's sharing about fried shrimp dish.

Ingredients (for a serving of 12 shrimp): shrimp, fried flour, breadcrumbs, 1 egg.

Making:

- Peel the shrimp, remove the head, leave the tail intact. Tip to peel shrimp easier: put the shrimp in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes, then take it out to peel it easier.

- Use a knife to score the shrimp along the back from the head to more than 1/3 of the length of the shrimp. Mix the fried flour mixture, 1 egg and a little water until the mixture is thick. Dip the shrimp into the flour mixture, remember to dip the scored shrimp, then dip it in the breadcrumbs. Roll the shrimp in the breadcrumbs, then hold the tail upright, separate the scored shrimp to 2 sides and dip it in the breadcrumbs, hold it like that and dip it in the pan of oil, press down lightly so that the scored shrimp is flat, leave it for a while until the scored shrimp is hard and can stand, then release your hand, wait until it is cooked, then flip the shrimp to 2 sides so that the tail of the shrimp is cooked.

Fry until the shrimp is just starting to cook, at this point the shell is light yellow, after burning incense I will fry the shrimp again until it is crispy and hot for the whole family to enjoy.

With the above method, Thao had a beautiful and crispy fried shrimp dish. Ms. Phuong Thao shared that during the process of cooking the offering tray for the Kitchen Gods, only Ms. Thao did it because her husband was busy with work. Her mother-in-law helped look after the children so that she could focus on cooking.

“A meal not only helps family members gather in a cozy home after a busy year, the dishes on the tray that we prepare will increase everyone's spirit of solidarity. It is not simply food anymore but also has great spiritual value," Ms. Thao happily shared.

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