Banh Xeo Vietnamese Sizzling Crepes
Banh xeo recipe has been sitting in our queue for way too long. A while back, we had a small dinner party and made Banh xeo (Vietnamese sizzling crepes). We took advantage of the outdoors burner and were flipping banh xeo for our guests like street vendors in Vietnam. We were smokin I tell ya! Banh xeo is savory and delicate crepe made of rice flour, turmeric powder, and coconut milk and filled with various meats such as pork, shrimp and veggies such as bean sprouts or mung beans. Each region in Vietnam has it’s slight variation with the southern region larger and having more veggies and mung beans and the central region typically smaller, poured in a mode, and without the mung beans.
As in our report of Van Restaurant’s banh xeo, the distinction between a good versus a great banh xeo is the thinness and crispiness of the crepes. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to make ours crispy…the first is cook the bean sprouts ahead of time so it doesn’t make the crepe soggy. Second is to use a bit of corn starch to the rice flour mix, and third, vary the heat and add a bit of oil during the cooking process as described below.
Watch this video of how we do it:
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 medium high heat, heat 1 teaspoon of cooking oil in a nonstick frying pan and briefly saute a few pieces of pork, onion, and shrimp.Don’t use too much filling–you don’t want to overload the crepes. When the meat starts to turn color you’re ready to add the batter. Distribute the shrimps and pork evenly prior to adding the batter.
Stir batter with ladle and add batter 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.
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. That’s your sign that it’s almost done.
Now add the pre-steamed beansprouts to one side of the crepe. Turn the heat down to low and continue to cook until crepe is gold brown. Use a spatula to carefully flip over the crepe. Don’t try to lift the crepe out of the pan with a spatula….lift 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 and repeat.
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!
Enjoy with plenty of lettuce, mustard greens, mints, basil, and perilla. You can either break off small pieces of banh xeo and form lettuce wraps or combine all the herbs and break off some banh xeo and eat in a bowl. Some Vietnamese even wrap the banh xeo spring roll style with rice paper. Dip or dress with nuoc mam cham dipping sauce along with pickled carrots and daikon.
So that’s our trick to get banh xeo crispy, thin, and without breaking. What are your tricks? But while we emphasize thin and crispy, even a noncrispy and broken banh xeo is still delicious!
Happy Holidays and a Delicious and Joyful New Years to everyone!
Banh Xeo Vietnamese Rice Crepes
Ingredients:
Fillings
1 /2 lb pork butt or pork belly, cut into thin slices
1/2 ts salt
1/2 ts sugar
1/2 ts fish sauce
ground 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 12 oz package of banh xeo mix (rice flour either with turmeric pre-mixed or separate--we used the package above, but many brands are available. If you can't find it, substitute 12 oz rice flour and 1 tbs turmeric powder)
2 tbs corn starch
3 cups of warm water
1 can 14 oz coconut milk
1 cup of chopped scallions
1/2 ts saltAccompaniments
Whole green lettuce leafs, mustard greens, mint, perilla, basil,
nuoc mam cham
pickled carrots and daikon
small bowl of cooking oilDirections:
n 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 medium 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.
The center of banh xeo with uncooked batter 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 add the pre-steamed beansprouts to one side of the crepe. Turn the heat down to low 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.
