Bánh Xèo Recipe

A little while back I posted this picture of Banh Xeo that I cooked for dinner. It has taken me a while (seems like most things these days takes me "a while" to do), but I have listened to you, oh my readers, and am posting the recipe as requested.

I had cracked open a cookbook that had sat neglected for far too long on my bookshelves: Foods of Vietnam, which was my first non-Chinese Asian cookbook. I bought first edition hardcover back in the early 90s. With its large glossy pages and its exquisite food photographs, it is what I think of as my first "glamor cookbook."

Some of my Asian cookbooks only give English names, which makes it harder to find recipes for dishes that I only know by their Asian name, so I really appreciate that Routhier gives both the Vietnamese names and English translations for the dishes.

(Crepe recipe in the extended post)

Bánh Xèo
adapted from Foods of Vietnam by Nicole Routhier

One thing that really struck me about this crepe recipe is that they are made of mung beans! How neat is that? You can buy instant banh xeo crepe batter from Asian grocery stores, but if you want the thrill of making it from scratch here is the batter recipe I used.

Crêpe Batter
1/4 C dried yellow mung beans
2 C fresh or canned coconut milk
1 C rice flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric

Cover mung beans with water and soak for 30 minutes. (prep your meat/shrimp in the meantime — see below) Drain. Set aside 1 cup of beans for filling. Place remaining beans (about 1/2 cup) in a blender with the coconut milk and process to a fine purée. Add the rice flour, sugar, salt, and turmeric. Blend well. Strain the mixture into a bowl or jar and refrigerate if you are not using right away.

Steam the reserved mung beans for about 20 minutes or until tender. Cool and set aside. And while your mung beans are steaming, make some nuoc cham (recipe at end).

Fillings & Accompaniments

The recipe from Foods of Vietnam has a rather lengthy list of fillings, including shredded carrots and diakon with nuoc cham, a vegetable platter (scallions, corianer, bean sprouts, mint, basil, cucumber, onion...), shrimp, pork cut into thin slices, mushrooms, etc. Well, I didn't have all that stuff, so I improvised. And since Joe isn't all that fond of onion slices, I left out the white onion. This is what I used:

raw shrimp, shelled and deveined and halved lengthwise
thinly sliced mushrooms
bean sprouts
thinly sliced scallions
minced garlic
mint

Combine shrimp (and pork if using) with a splash of nuoc nam, a sprinkle of sugar, minced garlic, and some black pepper to taste. Mix well and let marinate for 30 minutes.

Heat a bit of oil in a skillet or wok and stir fry the shrimp until just cooked. Remove from heat.

If you know how many pancakes you're going to make, you can pre-mix the vegetables, mushrooms, and steamed mung beans and divide into equal portions.

I make crepes and crepe-like breads in an intuitive fashion in a cast iron pan. Both temperature control and oil are important for making sure they cook right and don't glue themselves to the pan. I'm not sure I can describe how I know if the pan is too hot or too cold or how much oil to use. So if haven't cooked any kind of crepes before, and especially if you don't use non-stick pans, you may find it takes a bit of practice to cook crepes.   

Here's Routhier's directions for cooking the crepes:

Heat 2 Tbs of oil in a nonstick omelet pan (or any small pan) overly moderate high heat. When oil is very hot, stir the rice batter well and pour 1/2 C into the pan. Quickly tilt the pan to spread the mixture into a thin pancake. Scatter 1 mound of the vegetables and some shrimp (and pork if using) on the lower half of the pancake. Reduce the heat to moderate. Cover the pan and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the bottom of the pancake is brown and crispy. Fold the pancake in half (i.e. fold the vegetable-free section over the top of the vegetables) and slide it onto a platter. Keep warm in a low oven. Make remaining crepes.

Serve with lettuce leafs, herbs (mint, basil, coriander). Serve with nuoc cham.

Nuoc Cham
also from Foods of Vietnam 
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
1 fresh chile, seeded and minced
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs lime or lemon juice
1/4 C rice vinegar
1/4 cup nuoc nam (fish sauce)
1/4 C water

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and process for 30 seconds or until the sugar dissolves. You can add some finely shredded carrot and diakon to the sauce when serving with the crepes.

Comments

[Bryan Alexander]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Many thanks for posting this.

[Brooklynguy]

Crepe dish sounds AWESOME. must say, I've never heard of blending nuoc cham. i always thought you just combine the ingredients and let them sit together for a while...

[Kitchen Chick]

Byran: if you try it, let me know how it turns out.

Brooklynguy: the authentic way to do it is use a mortar and pestle to make the garlic and chili paste to add to the sauce. I've done this before, but a blender is much easier. Anyway, that's just one recipe for dipping sauce. You can find dozens of variants out there.

[holybasil]

KC - I've not used Routhier's recipe before. I think the addition of mung beans in the batter is interesting and I would like to try it that way next time.

When we were on our trip Viet Nam, we saw the street vendors making Bánh Xèo using these thick cast iron skillets. I remember them being the crispiest and tastiest that I've ever had. I think the use of the cast iron does indeed contribute to the crisp texture that is ideal for this dish.

Hi Joe & KC,
I wanted to make this dish for you guys for a while but the opportunity was not there. Now the opportunity is zero.

My sibs and I all buy the ready mix flour from the store and there is 1 brand that is really can make the banh xeo more crispy. The flour blend has wheat in it and it makes the batter thicker, therefore it turn out to be crispier.

Another thing that we do is to marrinate the meat and shrimp with salt, pepper & a touch of sugar ahead of time.

Also, we pan fry the meat with the scallions before we add the batter in.

We have 2 to 3 frying pans that is thick in material just for this dish. When I make this, I have 3 burners going at once so it comes out in batches of 3. It looks chaotic but with some practice, it can be easy. The pans I have is pretty thick lke All Clad stainless steel, or Caphalon hard annodize, not the cheap alluminum ones. Those alluminum ones can't retain heat well and make my banh xeo soggy.

[thu]

Hi Joe & KC,
I wanted to make this dish for you guys for a while but the opportunity was not there. Now the opportunity is zero.

My sibs and I all buy the ready mix flour from the store and there is 1 brand that is really can make the banh xeo more crispy. The flour blend has wheat in it and it makes the batter thicker, therefore it turn out to be crispier.

Another thing that we do is to marrinate the meat and shrimp with salt, pepper & a touch of sugar ahead of time.

Also, we pan fry the meat with the scallions before we add the batter in.

We have 2 to 3 frying pans that is thick in material just for this dish. When I make this, I have 3 burners going at once so it comes out in batches of 3. It looks chaotic but with some practice, it can be easy. The pans I have is pretty thick lke All Clad stainless steel, or Caphalon hard annodize, not the cheap alluminum ones. Those alluminum ones can't retain heat well and make my banh xeo soggy.

[Joe, KC's husband]

Thu, what brand of mix do you use? We'd like to try to find it!

[thu]

Hey Joe,
The Brand name is
Vinh Thuan, the name is: Bot Banh Xeo = Banh Xeo flour.

It has 2 shrimps, 4 banh xeo and a bowl of nuoc cham as illustration.

You can buy the premix package at the Asian grocery store on Washtenaw next to that super buffet.

Just use that and your usual mixing.

[duke]

How come this recipe doesn't contain water? Is that what makes it crispy? I've tried many premixes and they all came out not as crispy as I would want it to be.. It soaked up too much oil and burnt easily. I love eating Banh Xeo, but all the vietnamese restuarants in Virginia still doesn't bring back the flavor I am used to when in Vietnam. Restuarant banh xeo tends to be too soft and dense. Email me your favorite vietnamese recipe if you get a chance. I am a male that loves truly authentic vietnamese food so much that I would make it myself. I am still trying to perfect my Pho Soup base too. Also Banh Xu (vietnamese cream puff) and Bung Bo Hue. My email address is [email protected] Email me if you have good recipe. Thanks so much.

[Kitchen Chick]

Duke, the coconut milk is the liquid in the batter. Water isn't needed.

[tran thai]

Banh Xeo is my favourite dish. Roll in Cai Xanh or la cach and herbs, green... dip in mixed fish sauce ...ym ym

[Luck3x1]

Thank you so much for the recipe. I'm really wanting to cook this (because I haven't had this in ages)! :D