Best Banh Xeo Recipes

BANH XEO (VIETNAMESE CREPES)

Steps:

• Mix rice flour, sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and turmeric together in a large bowl. Beat in coconut milk to make a thick batter. Slowly beat in water until batter is the consistency of a thin crepe batter.
• Heat 1 1/2 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot and garlic; cook and stir until fragrant but not browning, 1 to 2 minutes. Add shrimp; saute until cooked through and opaque, 3 to 4 minutes. Season with fish sauce and salt. Transfer filling to a bowl.
• Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C).
• Wipe out skillet and reheat over medium heat. Add remaining 1 1/2 teaspoon oil. Stir crepe batter and pour 1/2 cup into the hot skillet, swirling to coat the bottom. Lay 3 or 4 of the cooked shrimp on the bottom half of the crepe. Top with a small handful of bean sprouts. Cook until batter looks set and edges start to brown, about 1 minute. Fold crepe over and slide onto an oven-safe plate.
• Place crepe in the preheated oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter and filling.
• Serve lettuce leaves alongside filled crepes. Break off pieces of crepe and roll up in lettuce leaves to eat.

BANH XEO (VIETNAMESE SHRIMP PANCAKES)

Steps:

• Marinate the shrimp and pork loin with the fish sauce and MSG in a glass or ceramic bowl for 30 minutes.
• Mix rice flour, water, coconut milk, green onions, and saffron powder.
• Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Drop 1/4 of the rice flour mixture and fry a large, thin pancake until bubbles form and the edges are dry, 3 to 4 minutes.. Put 1/4 of the shrimp and pork mixture on the pancake. Reduce heat to medium, add 1/4 of the bean sprouts and basil, flip, and cook until browned on the other side, 2 to 3 minutes. Fold pancake in half and transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining batter and filling.
• Mix lime juice, fish sauce, water, sugar, red chiles, garlic, and MSG for sauce together. To eat, roll the pancakes up together in a mustard green leaf and dip in the sauce.

BANH XEO

Steps:

• Make the batter: In a small bowl, whisk flour, cornstarch, salt and turmeric. In another small bowl, combine boiling water with coconut milk, then slowly drizzle into dry mixture, whisking constantly until smooth. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, make the dipping sauce: In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well.
• Make the pancakes: Divide the shrimp and bacon into 4 equal portions and season with salt. Season bean sprouts separately with salt. In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium. Add a single portion of shrimp and bacon and cook, stirring, until no longer raw, about 2 minutes. Spread shrimp and bacon in a single layer.
• Whisk scallions into batter until well blended. The batter should be slightly thicker than heavy cream. Add a little water, if needed. Pour 1/2 cup batter into skillet, distributing over and around the filling. Tilt pan to coat the bottom of the skillet. (Pancakes should be 8 to 9 inches wide.) Fill in holes with more batter, if necessary. Scatter 1/2 cup bean sprouts over the pancake, cover skillet and cook until sprouts soften, about 2 minutes.
• Uncover and cook over medium-low until pancake is golden and crispy underneath, about 3 minutes longer. Slide a spatula underneath the pancake and fold it in half to enclose the filling. Transfer pancake to a serving plate. Repeat with the remaining batter and fillings.
• Serve pancakes with lettuce leaves, herbs and nuoc cham. Using scissors, cut pancakes into small pieces. Lay out a lettuce leaf and fill with a piece of pancake. Top with herbs, wrap and dip into nuoc cham.

VIETNAMESE SHRIMP AND PORK CREPES (BANH XEO)

Steps:

• Make crêpe batter:
• Cover dried mung beans with water by 2 inches in a bowl and soak at room temperature, at least 30 minutes. Drain in a sieve, then rinse under cold water until water runs clear.
• Purée drained mung beans, coconut milk, and water (6 tablespoons) in a blender (mixture may appear curdled). Add rice flour, sugar, turmeric, and salt and purée until smooth. Transfer to a bowl.
• Make dipping sauce:
• Stir together sauce ingredients until sugar is dissolved.
• Make filling:
• Cut pork across the grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices, then cut slices into 2 1/2- by 1/2-inch strips. Stir together pork, shrimp, fish sauce, and brown sugar.
• Mince enough of lower portion of lemongrass stalk to measure 2 teaspoons.
• Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, then stir-fry onion, mushrooms, lemongrass, garlic, and pepper until mushrooms are golden, about 3 minutes. Make a well in center of mixture and add shrimp and pork and stir-fry until shrimp turns pink, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a clean bowl. (Shrimp and pork will not be cooked through.)
• Cook crépes:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 200°F.
• Heat 1 teaspoon oil in cleaned skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Stir batter, then pour 1/2 cup into skillet, immediately tilting and rotating skillet to coat bottom. Sprinkle one fourth of fresh bean sprouts over half of crpe, then stir filling and spoon one fourth of filling evenly on top of bean sprouts. Sprinkle one fourth of scallions on top. Reduce heat to moderately low and cook, covered, until edge of crpe begins to pull away from side of skillet (check occasionally), about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook crépe, uncovered, until underside and edge are crisp and golden, 2 to 3 minutes more (lift with a spatula to check underside; shrimp and pork will be fully cooked). Fold crépe over and gently slide onto a large rack on a large baking pan and keep warm in oven. Make 3 more crépes with remaining oil, batter, bean sprouts, filling, and scallions in same manner.
• Have each guest tear crépes in half and wrap each half in lettuce, then tuck in herbs. Serve with lime wedges and dipping sauce.

SIZZLING SAIGON CREPES-BANH XEO

Steps:

• For the dressing and garnish: Whisk the fish sauce, water, lime juice, sugar, chiles, and garlic together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves, then divide among 6 small dipping bowls and set aside. Arrange the lettuce, basil, and cilantro on a serving platter and set aside.
• For the crepes: Adjust 2 oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 200 degrees. Whisk the water, rice flour, coconut milk, scallions, turmeric, and salt together until uniform.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the pork and onion and cook until the pork is no longer pink and the onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the shrimp and continue to cook until they curl and turn pink, about 2 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside.
• Wipe out the skillet with a wad of paper towels, add 2 more teaspoons of the oil, and return to medium-high heat until just smoking. Add 1/3 cup of the pork-shrimp mixture and let heat through, about 30 seconds. Scrape the pork-shrimp mixture to one side of the skillet. Quickly stir the batter to recombine, then pour 1/2 cup of the batter into the skillet while swirling the pan gently to distribute it evenly over the pan bottom, keeping the meat mixture to the side. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the crêpe until the edges pull away from the sides and are deep golden, about 2 minutes.
• Sprinkle 1/2 cup of bean sprouts on top of the pork-shrimp side of the crêpe, then gently fold the opposite side of the crêpe over the sprouts. Slide the crepe out of the skillet onto an individual serving plate and transfer to the oven to keep warm. Repeat five more times with the remaining 10 teaspoons oil, remaining batter, and remaining pork-shrimp mixture. Serve the crêpes with the individual bowls of sauce, passing the garnish platter separately. (To eat, slice off a wedge of the crêpe, wrap it in a lettuce leaf, and dip it into the sauce.).

BANH XEO - VIETNAMESE CREPES

Steps:

• Place pork loin in a saucepan; cover with water and bring to a boil over medium heat; simmer until cooked through, about 20 minutes.
• Allow pork to cool, then julienne into strips.
• Shell and devein shrimp; slice each one in half lengthwise.
• Rinse herbs and drain; set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, prepare batter by mixing rice flour, self-rising flour, water, coconut milk, curry powder, sugar, salt, and green onion until smooth.
• Divide pork, shrimp, onion, and bean sprouts into 5 separate little piles for easy access during cooking.
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in non-stick frying pan until hot; cook pork shrimp and onion until it starts to sizzle; add 1/2 cup of batter and swirl to cover pan and get batter underneath.
• Place one pile of bean sprouts towards the center of the crepe, then cover the pan tightly.
• Turn the heat down to medium and cook for 2-3 minutes, then uncover and loosen edges of crepe and fold over with a spatula to form an omelette.
• Transfer the crepe to a serving platter.
• Repeat process with rest of batter.
• Do not cover the cooked crepes or stack them (they will lose their crispness- they should remain light and airy).
• To serve, place one crepe on a plate with some lettuce leaves, herbs also with a small bowl of nuoc cham.
• The person cuts a portion of crepe, wraps it in a leaf of lettuce with some herbs, and dips it in the sauce.

TRADITIONAL BANH XEO WITH NUOC CHAM SAUCE

Steps:

• For the nuoc cham sauce: Pound the garlic and chile in a large mortar with a pestle until pasty. Whisk in the fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, and 1 cup water until the sugar dissolves. Transfer to a serving bowl for dipping.
• For the banh xeo: Whisk the flour together with the scallion, salt, turmeric and 1/4 cup cold water in a bowl until completely smooth. Set aside.
• Heat a well-seasoned 9-inch carbon steel skillet over high heat until smoking hot. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan generously and swirl to lightly coat the sides, too. Add the shrimp and bacon, and cook, stirring and tossing, until the shrimp start to curl but before they become completely opaque, about 1 minute.
• Whisk the batter again to mix in any flour that has settled on the bottom, then ladle a spoonful into the pan. Swirl the pan to coat the bottom and an inch or so up the sides with a thin layer of the batter. Repeat two more times. Let the batter set, about 30 seconds.
• Drizzle the egg over the crepe and swirl the pan to evenly coat the crepe with egg. The crepe should have released from the sides of the pan; squirt oil between the crepe edges and the pan. Gently shake the pan to keep everything moving. Poke a hole in the crepe with a fork or spoon to keep it from bubbling up -- you want a flat crepe. Oil should be sputtering at the edges of the crepe; if it isn't, add more.
• Cook the crepe, oiling and shaking until the egg has set on top and the bottom of the crepe is dark brown around the edges and speckled on the bottom. Pile the bean sprouts on one half and fold the other half over with a spatula. Hold the folded omelet against one side of the pan and tilt the oil out the other side into a heat-safe bowl; discard.
• Lift the omelet out of the pan with the spatula and immediately serve with the shrimp and bacon, lettuce and shiso leaves, herbs and nuoc cham. Tear off a piece of omelet with a bunch of bean sprouts and tuck it into a lettuce leaf with a shiso leaf and some bacon and shrimp. Pluck a few fresh herb leaves of basil, cilantro, dill and mint, and stuff them in there, too. Then roll it up and dip into the nuoc cham. Eat. Repeat.

BANH XEO VIETNAMESE BEAN SPROUT PANCAKE

Steps:

• Use the peanut oil or other neutral tasting oil.
• Press the tofu to remove as much water as possible.
• Peel and slice onions.
• Slice the mushrooms. Wash sprouts and set aside to drain.
• The tofu should be 1/4 inch square and 2 inches long when you slice it.
• Now heat oil over high heat and place the mushroom, tofu and onion in a single layer on bottom of pan. Saute over high heat until vegetables are browned on bottom.
• Whisk flour, turmeric, water and milk to form thin batter. When tofu is ready add batter to pan slowly. You don't want the veggies to float to the edges. And tilt carefully to distribute batter evenly.
• Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Place sprouts on 1/2 pancake and cook for two or three more minutes until you see the underside of pancake is golden and crispy when you check edges.
• Fold pancake over sprouts and slide onto serving plate.
• Make sure each person gets lettuce and mint leaves. TO eat cut off pieces [bite size]and wrap in lettuce leaf with mint and a bit of chili sauce.
• Do not depend on the time. Use desired results to tell you when the next step or when it is done.

BANH XEO (VIETNAMESE CREPE)

Steps:

• Combine the mix with the curry powder and coconut cream in a bowl.
• Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to a hot pan. Ladle in 5 ounces batter to make a semi-thin crepe. Cook until crispy underneath and dried out on top. (If the crepe sticks to the pan, drizzle additional oil underneath it to get it to release.) Repeat with the remaining batter, using more oil as necessary.
• Add the cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts, chicken and shrimp to each crepe and fold in half.
• Garnish with the butter lettuce, cilantro, basil and mint. Dip in the Nuoc Cham Sauce.
• Mix together the granulated sugar, vinegar, fish sauce, sambal, garlic and 11 ounces water in a medium bowl until sugar dissolves.

SIZZLING SAIGON CREPES—BANH XEO

Steps:

• 1. For the dressing and garnish: Whisk the fish sauce, water, lime juice, sugar, chiles, and garlic together in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves, then divide among 6 small dipping bowls and set aside. Arrange the lettuce, basil, and cilantro on a serving platter and set aside. 2. For the crepes: Adjust 2 oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 200 degrees. Whisk the water, rice flour, coconut milk, scallions, turmeric, and salt together until uniform. 3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the pork and onion and cook until the pork is no longer pink and the onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the shrimp and continue to cook until they curl and turn pink, about 2 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside. 4. Wipe out the skillet with a wad of paper towels, add 2 more teaspoons of the oil, and return to medium-high heat until just smoking. Add 1/3 cup of the pork-shrimp mixture and let heat through, about 30 seconds. Following the illustrations below, scrape the pork-shrimp mixture to one side of the skillet. Quickly stir the batter to recombine, then pour 1/2 cup of the batter into the skillet while swirling the pan gently to distribute it evenly over the pan bottom. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the crêpe until the edges pull away from the sides and are deep golden, about 2 minutes. 5. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of bean sprouts on top of the pork-shrimp side of the crêpe, then gently fold the opposite side of the crêpe over the sprouts. Slide the crepe out of the skillet onto an individual serving plate and transfer to the oven to keep warm. Repeat five more times with the remaining 10 teaspoons oil, remaining batter, and remaining pork-shrimp mixture. Serve the crêpes with the individual bowls of sauce, passing the garnish platter separately. (To eat, slice off a wedge of the crêpe, wrap it in a lettuce leaf, and dip it into the sauce.)