Banh Xeo

By MC042561

Ingredients

• Fillings
• 1 /2 lb pork butt, cut into thin slices
• 1/2 ts salt
• 1/2 ts sugar
• 1/2 ts fish sauce
• black pepper
• 1/2 lb of shrimp (medium to large size, deveined and peeled)
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 3 cups of bean sprouts (in small bowl wrapped in plastic wrap, steam small batches in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes, drain and set aside)
• Batter
• 1 package of banh xeo mix (basically rice flour either with turmeric pre-mixed or separate–we used the package above, but many brands are available)
• 3 cups of water or beer
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• 1 cup of chopped scallions
• 1/2 ts salt
• Accompaniments
• Whole green lettuce leafs, mustard greens, mint, perilla, basil,
• nuoc mam cham
• pickled carrots and daikon
• small bowl of cooking oil

Preparation

Step 1

In a mixing bowl, combine banh xeo mix, coconut milk, and beer and mix well. Let the ingredients meld together for about 20 minutes and add green onions. Marinate the pork with salt, pepper, sugar, and fish sauce and set aside. Season shrimp with touch of salt and pepper and set aside.


Before starting to pour your crepes, make sure you have have plenty of counter space and line up all your ingredients ready to go–largest nonstick pan you have, a ladle and flexible spatula, batter, pork, shrimp, onions, and small bowl of cooking oil.

On high heat, heat 1 teaspoon of cooking oil in a nonstick frying pan and sautee a few pieces of pork–when it’s about 1/3rd of of the way done, add onion slices and shrimps since they are quicker to cook. Distribute the shrimps and pork evenly prior to adding the batter. Don’t use too much filling–you don’t want to overload the crepes.

Stir batter with ladle and add about 3/4 quarter ladle full into the center of the pan and quickly swirl the pan to evenly distribute a thin layer batter to the very edges of the pan. Try to go for as thin a layer as possible. You may have to adjust how much batter you use depending on how big your pan is.

Place a lid over for about 1.5 minutes or so. When you check the crepe notice that the area of uncooked batter in the center will get smaller and smaller (see above). When the crepe is almost completely cooked, the edges of the crepe start to curl up a bit and turn golden brown. Now take another small amount of cooking oil in a spoon distribute oil around the edges so the crepe gets crispy, won’t burn, and will be easier to flip (see how the edges are lifting off the pan?–below)

Now add the pre-steamed beansprouts to one side of the crepe. Turn the heat down to medium heat and place the lid over for another 1 minute or until gold brown. Using the flexible spatula carefully flip over the other half. When golden and nicely browned, don’t try to lift the crepe out of the pan with a spatula….just tilt the pan and slide the crepe over to a plate and serve immediately. When pouring the next crepe, add more oil as needed.

Unfortunately, this is something that doesn’t hold well if made in advance–no matter how crispy you make it, after some time banh xeo will lose it’s crispiness. So don’t have guests wait–tell them to dig in right away!