Banh Xeo Recipe (Sizzling Saigon Crepes)
November 25th, 2009 | Vietnamese Recipes | 30 Comments
I have yet traveled to Vietnam but I am a big fan of Vietnamese food, thanks to the Little Saigon in Orange County—the largest Vietnamese enclave outside of Vietnam and the place I shop, eat, and have cheap massages! Last weekend, my friend Chef Danhi invited me to join his Little Saigon tour. Towards to the end of the tour, he did a cooking demo of banh xeo (pronounced as banh say-oh), or Vietnamese coconut crepes with pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts, a recipe that I have been wanting to learn. I volunteered to help him make a serving of banh xeo.
The next day, I went to the market and got all the ingredients and practiced further at home. While banh xeo is not that hard to make, getting the perfect shape without breaking the crepe is a skill I surely need to work on, or perhaps, I will have to acquire the pan flipping skill that would flip the banh xeo and land it on the pan instead of the kitchen floor…(get Vietnamese banh xeo recipe after the jump)
According to Chef Danhi, banh xeo is a southern Vietnam recipe. Xeo means “sizzling” so it’s also known as sizzling Saigon crepes. I used vegetable oil to make my banh xeo, but traditionally, it’s made with lard. To eat, just wrap it with a lettuce leaf and herbs (Thai basil, Perilla herb, mint leaves) and then dip in nuoc cham, the ubiquitous Vietnamese dipping sauce made of fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar.
Adapted from Southeast Asian Flavors
Makes 6 ten-inch crepes
Ingredients:
Rice Batter
2 cups rice flour
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup water
3/4 cup canned coconut milk
3 scallions, thinly sliced on extreme angle, about 1/4 inch thick
Fillings:
1 cup lard or vegetable oil
1/4 lb. pork shoulder, cut into thin slices
1/4 lb. small shrimp, peeled and deveined, slices in halves lengthwise
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced yellow onions, about 1/8 inch thick
1 to 2 medium long red chilies, sliced thinly into rings, about 1/8 inch thick
3/4 cups sliced mushrooms, 1/8 inch slices
2 cups bean sprouts (trimmed preferred)
Method:
- In a large bowl whisk together the rice flour, turmeric powder and salt. Add water and coconut milk and whisk until mixture is smooth. Strain through sieve if there are lumps. Set batter to rest for 30 minutes.
- Heat up a 10-inch non-stick saute pan or skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon lard/oil and then add one portion of pork, shrimp, onions, scallions, and mushrooms. Stir fry until pork and shrimp are half done, and ladle 1/2 cup of batter into pan. Swirl pan to coat bottom evenly. Add bean sprouts over half the crepe (on the right). Drizzle another 1 tablespoon of lard/oil around outer edge of crepe and lower heat to medium.
- Cover pan and cook for 1 minute. Remove cover and continue to cook until edges begin to brown. Loosen crepe from bottom of pan with a soft silicon spatula (hard spatula would break the crepe). When bottom turns light brown and crispy, fold crepe to encase bean sprouts.
- Places pieces of cooked banh xeo inside a lettuce leaf, dip in nuoc cham and eat immediately.
Nuoc Cham Recipe
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water
3 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce
1-2 bird’s eye chilies, cut into very fine rings
1 clover garlic, minced finely (optional)
Method:
- Add fish sauce, water, sugar and lime juice into a small bowl and mix well until sugar is completely dissolved.
- Add garlic and chilies and stir.
- Use as tableside condiment as desired.
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GREAT JOB BEE!!!! I love to eat and make banh xeo, on a good day i could eat 9 of these. This reminds me, another dish that could be served on an Asian themed Thanksgiving.
I absolutely love these crepes. One of my fav. dishes! Thanks for posting.
Oh yeah, I am all over this. Thanks.
I’ve tried them over at Quan An Ngon restaurant in Hanoi, not bad.
the thin, almost translucent crepe was a delight to munch on, and the combination of meat, vegetables and the sauce … heavenly stuff.
We had these crepes, or pho, every morning in Saigon from the street vendors near our hotel. Don’t know why I never make them at home.
These are MY favorite, particularly when eaten at VAN’s in Little Saigon in Orange County. Now if you can post the secrets of Lee’s Banh Mi sandwiches, you’ll have me addicted for life! Gum on!
woah…this looks yummy!
personally, i am not a very huge fan of Vietnamese food but your recipe is totally Wonderful!
thanks for sharing
god I love you – thank you for posting my favorite recipes (my parents always made them) and what’s best, is that I *trust* your recipes. :)
The pictures are incredible – so crisp and airy! The recipe itself sounds just as good as the pictures. I love all sorts of crepes, especially those with savoury fillings. So I’d love to try this, the only problem is that I doubt I could find any bean sprouts over here…
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I’ve tried them over at Quan An Ngon restaurant in Hanoi, not bad.
the thin, almost translucent crepe was a delight to munch on, and the combination of meat, vegetables and the sauce … heavenly stuff.
Thanks for cooking these up Bee, your help cooking at Cat Restaurant http://www.catrestaurant.com/ in Little Saigon fed four more people LOL. See you in the kitchen again soon!
I’ve never tried this but it looks really interesting. I would love to have this for breakfast, definitely.
This looks like the perfect vegetabl-y recipe I need to get me out of this Thanksgiving funk- goes so well with the spicy sauce! :)
hi bee! just would like to ask what happened to the scallions for the batter? it wasnt mentioned at all.
thanks!
Hah, just add it to the crepe before adding the bean sprouts.
Beautiful and delicious, Bee! The color & texture is mouth watering. This is Todd’s absolute favorite, he makes it all the time, he’s addicted to banh xeo. He makes it better than any Viet that I know.
The lovely part about banh xeo is that it’s made in many different ways in VietNam. But we all have to agree that the crepe must be crispy, crispy, crispy good.
Hi, I am so glad because you love our country’s crepe. Tonight, the christmas day, we will hold a christmas party with Banh Xeo dish in UK.
I have a small tip, you can add a little wheat flour (about 1/5 rice flour) and 1 egg. These will make you easy to get “perfect shape” while it is still crisp.
bye!
This looks so good! I plan to make it tomorrow. I have a question though. Do you remove the meat/scallion mixture from the pan before pouring the crepe batter in the pan, or is the battered poured on top of the meat/scallion mixture? Am confused a little about that.
Luv ur site!
~ Thanks
Batter is poured on top pf the meat/scallion.
I’m a Vietnamese girl and I’m very happy when I know that you love our food. In Southern Vietnam, they use to put tau suan (grean bean) as one of the filling and make it in super large size that you only can finish one for the whole meal. And they also used to use another kind of vegetable to eat with bánh xèo (I found it in NUTC but cant remember its name). The replacement of small size and lettuce leaf are used in Northern Vietnam :D.
Are you live in Singapore? Because I must say that Vietnamese food in Singapore is not as good as in Vietnam, except the small stall in NUS canteen.
I have an image of my bánh xèo and the kind of vegetable to go with it. Go with mint leaves, Thais basil and parsley, too. http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9473/img4312m.jpg
Thanks for your information about banh xeo and the image.
Wow, thanks for this great recipe. I can’t wait to try it this weekend!
Hi there, I don’t eat pork..can you please advise the alternative to pork shoulder for this recipe? I’d love to try this….looks so delicious that my mouth waters non-stop. Thanks, Liz.