Bánh Xèo- Vietnamese Sizzling Crepes

by Jessica Nguyen


One of my favourite Vietnamese summer dishes. It's a savoury crispy crepe made from tumeric, coconut milk, flour and spring onions and filled with pork, prawns, beansprouts and onion. The name of this dish comes from the 'sizzling sound' the crepes make when frying in the pan as 'xèo' means 'to sizzle'. My family like to eat them as a lettuce wrap, whilst other families and regions will wrap these into rice paper rolls. I also love turning the leftovers the next day into a salad bowl.

When it comes to bánh xèo, my mum is the best at making them, but I’ve tried to do them justice and sharing her recipe and process in a way that is hopefully easy to replicate. Ours are Southern Vietnamese in style and the key is using school prawns in the batter. As they’re small and have their shells, they end up fusing into the crepe to make it extra crunchy and flavourful. We like to wrap ours with fresh lettuce, cucumber and herbs that my parents even grow themselves, so every summer when these are at their peak, my mum will usually fry up bánh xèo to fully appreciate them.

Makes- 4 crepes

Ingredients- 15+

Cooking Time- 1.5 hours

Skill Level- Medium to difficult. The frying of the crepe to get the right thin and crispy consistency will take some time and practice.


Ingredients


Banh Xeo Batter

  • 2 cups (250g) of rice flour, sifted

  • 1 cup (125g) of tapioca starch, sifted

  • 1 cup (250ml) of coconut milk

  • 1.5 cups of cold tap water

  • 2 teaspoons of salt

  • 3 teaspoons of turmeric powder. 

  • 4 stalks of spring onion, finely chopped


Crepe Filling

  • 200g of pork belly, thinly sliced into 2cm square strips

  • 300g of frozen school prawns defrosted, tails and heads snipepd off. Available from your good fishmongers and asian seafood stores in frozen packs.

  • 1 large red onion, thinly sliced

  • 2 cups of beansprouts


Lettuce Wraps



Method

  1. Place all of the batter ingredients into a bowl and whisk to combine. The batter should be thin like a crepe batter and butter yellow in colour. If it’s too pale, simply add a pinch more turmeric to get the right shade of yellow. Allow the batter to stand for at least 1 hour. Ideally prep this a few hours in advance or even better, the day before as it allows the batter to bloom and ferment. I also usually make double the recipe (makes approx 8 bánh xèo) so I have extra that I can reheat and eat again the next day.

  2. Before frying the Bánh xèo, make sure you have the batter and all of the fillings (pork belly, school prawns, red onions and beansprouts) set-up next to your pan.                                                                                                                               

  3. Heat a pan with some oil on medium. Similar to standard crepes and pancakes, the first one is always a bit of a flop as the pan is still getting warmed.

  4. Add 8 slices of pork belly and stir fry for about 10 seconds. Add in approx 8 prawns and fry for another 10 seconds before adding in a tablespoon or so of onion. Fry for another 10 seconds so the onions soften and the pork and prawns are almost 70% cooked, then spread everything out in the pan evenly.

  5. Pour in a ladle’s worth of the batter in the centre of the pan. Tilt and turn the pan so that it spreads evenly, is thin and covers the entire pan. Allow to cook on medium heat for about 30 seconds before scattering over a handful of beansprouts, turning the heat down to low and covering with a lid for another 30-45 seconds. This will steam/soften the beansprouts

  6. Remove the lid and turn the heat back to medium and add a few teaspoons of oil around the perimeter of the pan so that it drips down the underside of the crepe. Fry on medium heat for about 2 minutes. This part dries out the crepe and makes the outside crispy.

  7. Once the edges of the bánh xèo start to pull away from the pan and are crispy, gently fold over the crepe in half with a spatula. Press down gently and then remove from the pan.

  8. Fry the remaining bánh xèo.

  9. Serve whilst warm, tearing a piece and placing into a lettuce leaf with herbs, cucumber and pickles. Wrap, dip into dipping sauce and enjoy.

Notes & Tips

  • If you make extra bánh xèo that you want to eat again for your next meal, simply allow to cool completely before covering with cling wrap and storing in the fridge. To reheat, simply bake in the oven on aluminum foil for about 15 minutes or until hot and crispy again. I have the Our Place Wonder Oven and I use it to air-fry/re-heat my bánh xèo which takes about 5 minutes.

  • If you have the time, make the batter in advance (day before or at least a few hours before cooking) as it allows the batter to bloom and become more flavourful.

  • School prawns can be hard to source and find at fishmongers. You rarely find them sold fresh and most likely find them sold in 500g frozen packs. I have to head to an asian fishmonger for this most of the time.

  • Don't cook the crepes on a higher heat than medium. High heat will cause the crepe to burn vs crisp up on a lower heat.
  • If you want a different way to enjoy the leftovers, I love reheating them but them roughly chopping them into a salad with all of the lettuce wrap ingredients (lettuce, herbs, cucumber, pickles and topped with dipping sauce).

 

Watch the Process

 

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