I'm so excited to share this Banh Xeo or Crispy Vietnamese Pancake recipe with you! It is so easy to make a restaurant quality Banh Xeo just with some easy to find but key ingredients and I'll show you how to make sure that your Banh Xeo is the crispiest Vietnamese pancake ever. This is the most satisfying and fresh dinner recipe. I will also show you the best way to eat Banh Xeo! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.
The name Banh Xeo refers to the sound (xèo means 'sizzling') that shows you how crispy this pancake is. There are two types of Banh Xeo. The first is Miền Trung Banh Xeo from Central Vietnam which is smaller with fewer fillings and made with fermented shrimp paste. The second is Miền Tây Banh Xeo from the Mekong Delta that are larger, around the size of a large plate and filled with prawns, bean sprouts, pork and onions and coloured yellow via the use of turmeric. The ones that we usually get in Australia are the latter.
We spent most of our recent holiday in Europe but on the way home we stopped by Vietnam for a few nights as we were flying Vietnam Airlines and Mr NQN had never been to Vietnam before. We stayed in an area called Quy Nhon in Central Vietnam on the coast and they are known for their banh xeo. I learned the method for banh xeo at the hotel I was staying at, the Anantara Quy Nhon. Chef Huy asked me what I wanted to learn to make and we went to the market to buy the ingredients and went back to the hotel kitchen to make it. I was shocked at how easy it is to make Vietnamese pancakes and I also learned that the secret ingredient to the crispiness is...tempura flour!
My favourite Banh Xeo in Sydney is at Bay Tinh restaurant (although I haven't been for a few years so I'm not sure what it's like now). But it is crisp and delicious and quite honestly I have not found any other restaurants that do a banh xeo even similar. Not until this one!
12 Tips For Making (and Eating) the CRISPIEST Banh Xeo
1 - You need two types of flour for crispy banh xeo: rice flour (not glutinous rice flour, regular rice flour) and tempura flour. Chef Huy actually used a premade banh xeo flour mixture that is sold as such but he still added the tempura flour. Tempura flour is a mixture of regular wheat flour and cornflour /fine cornstarch or tapioca flour that gives fried food an amazing crispiness.
2 - There is no egg in a banh xeo batter, the yellow is from turmeric powder. The batter can be kept covered in the fridge for up to 4-5 days so you can make it fresh every day! Make sure to whisk the batter well before using it as the rice flour tends to settle at the bottom.
3 - To get a crispy banh xeo you will need to use a bit of oil. You need around 2 tablespoons of oil for the pan but that is what gives it that wonderful crispiness that you get in restaurants. Mr NQN and I shared one of these for lunch every day for a week when we got home and we never felt weighed down after eating because it was combined with lots of salad and herbs. Someone told us that Vietnamese people like to eat banh xeo early and not too late at night to give their body time to digest the oil.
4 - If this is your first time making banh xeo Chef Huy recommends use a non stick pan but once you get used to it use a cast iron frying pan. Banh Xeo gets much crispier in a cast iron pan but make sure yours is seasoned well and that you use it when it is very hot.
5 - We don't need to pre-cook the filling unless it is meat like pork belly or ground pork. Onions and prawns are quick to cook and will be cooked within the pancake.
6 - Traditionally you use sliced pork belly but I prefer using seasoned ground pork. I'm sharing my recipe for it below and it has so much flavour. Sometimes when I don't have prawns I'll just add all of the vegetables and the seasoned ground pork. Promise me you'll try my version with the pork mince!
7 - Make sure that you prep your salad and fillings before you start cooking your pancake as Banh Xeo is best eaten straight away and will lose its crispiness over time.
8 - Timing is important: Pour a thin layer of batter, add your fillings and then cover up the pan with a lid and cook for 2.5 minutes. This is long enough to cook through any prawns and also wilts the bean sprouts and onions and heats through the pork and other fillings. Then remove the lid and allow to crisp up on the bottom for another minute or two.
9 - When it comes to eating banh xeo, it is usually cut into quarters and then you can eat it with lettuce and herbs and dip it into nuoc cham (here is a recipe for restaurant quality nuoc cham or nuoc mam). But in Quy Nhon they showed us a much easier way to eat banh xeo. They have rectangular rice paper (YES!! Why is it round, it should be rectangular) and they lay the quarter of banh xeo on this along with soft lettuce and herbs and then roll it up. It doesn't break up in your hand or get super messy!
10 - You can find rectangular rice paper at Vietnamese grocery stores. They are a game changer, seriously. It's also so much cheaper than buying them at the supermarket.
11 - I like serving Banh Xeo with soft lettuce, fresh mint and coriander, more spring onions, cucumber batons, pickled daikon and carrot and nuoc cham dipping sauce. You can buy nuoc cham or nuoc mam dipping sauce at the supermarkets but I really recommend making your own.
12 - My favourite thing that I learned is to roll up the pancake with salad and herbs in rectangular rice paper. Start with herbs, soft lettuce leaves, spring onion and cucumber and then top with the pancake! Roll up and dip in the nuoc cham sauce (I prefer to dip the first bite in and then spoon the nuoc cham into the roll)!
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Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup & Luke Nguyen's Tips For Making The Best Pho.
Vietnamese Style Sticky Mint & Lime Lamb Shoulder
This is so good that I've been making this for a couple of weeks now, long after the recipe was perfected! So while I have come back from holiday with this recipe, I also have a new travelling tip. Mr NQN and I have quite different hobbies. Mine mostly involve eating and while I am happy to walk up to 20,000 a day he sometimes likes more and he likes do this augmented reality game called Ingress (like Pokemon Go) that requires that he walk around covering a lot of distance.
We were in Athens one morning and were set to board a cruise ship that afternoon at 4pm. I like to wake up late, have a cup of tea and exercise at a leisurely pace but he was chomping at the bit to do some Ingressing. He promised that he would be back in plenty of time but my mind went straight to a movie script where he goes missing in a new city and I can't find him but have to get on a cruise. "Ok let's make a deal. You go wherever you want but just put an airtag in your pocket," I proposed. He thought about it for a second before agreeing. Remember the poor tv presenter Michael Mosley that passed away while going for a walk? Ok Mr NQN is much younger than he was but you never know!
Airtagging Mr NQN worked for when we were on the cruise. Sometimes I'd go back to the ship early and he would wander around Ingressing but wearing an airtag (because in my second nightmare movie scenario the cruise ship has to leave and I couldn't locate him!). I got so many messages from people saying what a great idea it was so I thought I'd share it here too! So don't forget #airtagyourhusband ;)
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like Banh Xeo? And have you ever airtagged someone?
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