Bánh Xeo Recipe

 Bánh Xeo is a street food favourite of many Vietnamese - it is a light savoury crepe made with rice flour and coconut milk, to be eaten as its being cooked. it is served with an abundance of salad leaves and herbs. The crepe is placed on a lettuce leaf on your palm, then rolled up with lots of herbs and then dipped into a fish sauce based dipping sauce. Never before could I enjoy a salad so immensely. Everything should be prepped before the crepes are made so they can be eaten with your hands as soon as they are done.

For 15 x 20cm pancakes, Serves 5 - 6

Ingredients
Batter:
400g rice flour
10g turmeric powder
400ml coconut milk
800ml water
4 spring onions thinly sliced
A pinch of salt
A pinch of sugar

Filling:
500g king prawns - peeled
pork belly - thinly sliced
4 shallots - coarsely chopped
500g beansprouts
salt and pepper to season

Garnish:
lettuce
coriander
sweet Basil
mint

Dipping Sauce:
2 tbs premium fish sauce - (Three Crabs Brand)
2 birdseye chilli - finely chopped
2 cloves garlic –  finely chopped
2 tbs cider vinegar
2 tbs sugar
400ml  water

Method

Mix together the batter ingredients making sure that the mixture is smooth and free of lumps.
Prep salad and herb leaves for the table and make the dipping sauce by combining all the ingredients together. If you find that it is too sweet, add more fish sauce, if too sour, add more sugar, if too salty add a little water. Place dipping sauce into bowls for each person.

To make the crepe, heat a frying pan with cooking oil, then brown off a teaspoon of chopped shallots, then add a few pieces of thinly sliced pork belly and two prawns to colour off. Using a shallow ladle, pour on a thin layer of batter, add a handful of beansprouts and close the pan with a lid and wait patiently for two minutes to cook. Then remove the lid and cook for a further one minute, making sure the batter is crispy and brown. Then turn the crepe onto a half moon and serve immediately and continue to make more.