Bánh Xèo

Vietnamese crepes filled with pork, shrimp, onions and sprouts, wrapped up in lettuce with veggies and herbs

We cooked Vietnamese food at home for years before travelling to Vietnam, especially in the summer when our garden was peaking and producing a bounty of fresh lettuce, cucumbers, carrots and herbs. When we lived in Hue, Vietnam, Cyrus and I took a cooking class at a local restaurant. Of all the dishes we learned to prepare, my favorite was bánh xèo, Vietnamese crepes. Besides the wonderful combination of salty, sweet, savory, sour and spicy, it also has a variety of temperatures and textures. It has become my favorite Vietnamese dish, and of course we’ve since added it to our summertime repertoire.

Ingredients:

            Crepe:

• 1 ½ c. rice flour
• 1 t. turmeric
• 2 T. chopped chives or green onion
• 2 T. peanut oil
• At least 1 c. of water
• ½ c. coconut milk

Cooked Filling:

• ½ lb pork tenderloin (sliced very thin)
• ½ lb peeled shrimp (sliced in half lengthwise to make thin strips)
• 1/2 c. thinly sliced onions
• 2 c. bean sprouts
• Peanut oil for frying

Sweet Fish Sauce (for dipping):

• 4 cloves of garlic (chopped fine)
• 2 fresh Thai chilies (sliced fine)
• ¼ c. fish sauce
• 2/3 c. hot water
• ¼. c. palm sugar
• 3 T. lime juice
• 2 T. shredded carrots

Wrap and Cold Filling:

• 1 head of lettuce (butter, red leaf, or green leaf)
• 1 cucumber (cut into thin slices or strips)
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 bunch Thai basil
• ¼ c. radish, sliced thin

Directions:

1. Combine crepe ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. The batter should be thin—thinner than a pancake batter. Let the batter sit while you prepare the other ingredients.

2. To make the sweet fish sauce, heat the water and add the palm sugar to make a syrup. Stir until dissolved. Let it cool. Add all of the other ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the syrup when cool and stir. Taste and modify to your liking: add more lime to make it tangier and to cut the sweetness or saltiness; add more fish sauce for saltiness. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

3. Arrange the lettuce leaves and cold filling ingredients on a platter. The lettuce leaves should be left whole.

4. Heat a medium non-stick frying pan (to medium-hot) and just cover the bottom with peanut oil.  Make sure the batter is stirred each time before you add it to the pan. Ladle the batter in the pan to make a thin crepe. After a minute, add three pieces of pork and three pieces of shrimp to one side of the crepe. Cover the pan with a lid for 2-3 minutes, until the meat is cooked. Add sprouts.

5. Continue to cook until the crepe is crispy and beginning to brown. Fold the crepe in half and serve. Add more oil before you prepare the next crepe. This recipe will make about 8 crepes.

To eat, wrap the crepes and the cold fillings in a lettuce leaf. Dip them in the sweet fish sauce. Try not to make too much of a mess.