Vietnamese crepes (Banh Xeo)

Vietnamese cuisine is my favorite cuisine because each and every dish is light but still full of flavor. I recently tried Banh Xeo, or Vietnamese crepes for the first time and absolutely loved it. The crepe is crispy and stuffed with shrimp and bean sprouts. It's then wrapped in red leaf lettuce with basil, mint, and cucumbers and dipped in the signature Vietnamese sauce, Nuoc Cham. Eager to bring this to work, I made Banh Xeo for the first time today.

Vietnamese Crepes (Banh Xeo)

Recipe from whats4eats.com

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

Crepe batter:

1 cup rice flour

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup water

Filling:

2-3 tbsp oil

2-3 tbsp shallots or scallions, minced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

2-3 tbsp fish sauce

salt to taste

1 lb mung bean sprouts

Salad:

1 head green leaf or romaine lettuce, cleaned and separated into individual leaves

1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch mint

1 recipe nuoc cham

Directions

1. Make the batter by combining the rice flour, sugar, salt, and turmeric. Whisk in the coconut milk and slowly pour in the water to thin out the batter. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium-high. Add the shallots or scallions and garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes, without browning. Add the shrimp and saute until pink, about 3-4 minutes. Season with the fish sauce. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Using the same pan, wipe clean with a paper towel and heat oil over medium heat. Give the crepe batter a stir and pour 1/2 cup into the pan. Swirl the pan to evenly coat the bottom. Lay 3-4 shrimp in the bottom half of the crepe and a 1/3 cup of the sprouts. Once the crepe begins to holds shape and turns golden, fold the top half over the shrimp and sprouts and transfer to a plate. Hold warm in the oven while you repeat with the remaining batter.
4. To serve, have an individual nuoc cham sauce per person with their crepe. Arrange a large plate with the lettuce and herbs. To eat, make a lettuce wrap with a portion of the crepe and fresh herbs and dip in the nuoc cham. 

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving: 450 calories, 17.2  fat (13.2g saturated, 1.2g polyunsaturated, 1.1g monounsaturated), 50.7g carbohydrates, 8.4g fiber, 27.6g protein

Nuoc Cham

Cooking time: 2 minutes

Yield: about 1 1/4 cup

Ingredients

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup lime juice

1/2 cup water'

2 tsp chili paste such as sambal olek

Directions

1. Mix all of the ingredients together with a whisk. 

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Make sure to read all of these tips before cooking! You can learn from my mistakes since the crepe didn't end up exactly how I wanted it. This recipe has the correct ingredients but needs some help on the technique of how to make the crepes. 

First off, when making the batter, you will find that you need much more water than 1/2 cup. If you see below, the batter was extremely thick when I followed the amounts exactly. I saw in another recipe that for 1 cup of coconut milk, 3 cups of water was added. You basically want your batter to be thin enough to spread easily in the pan, slightly thicker than the consistency of water. 

Now there are two ways of cooking the crepe. The first is to do as the recipe says, cook the shrimp, remove from the pan, than cook the crepe and lay the shrimp on top. This is the method that I chose to do. When sauteing your shrimp, you can omit the salt as I did because fish sauce is already salty. If your batter is the right consistency, this shouldn't stop you from producing a crisp crepe. However, if your batter is too thick, the center of the crepe will be soft while only the outside is crisp.

You can see the difference of when the center of the crepe is cooked (right side) and when it is not quite ready (left). If the edges are turning golden brown but the center is not yet cooked, lower your heat. You can also place a lid on top of your pan to cook the center. 

The second method that will yield you a crispy crepe is to cook everything at the same time. Saute your shrimp with the garlic and scallions or shallots. Once they turn pink, ladle your crepe batter directly in the pan with the shrimp. Swirl the pan around to spread out the batter. When the center of the batter is cooked and set and the edges have turned golden, lay the beansprouts on one half of the crepe. Fold in half and remove from the pan. 

Crepes galore! Keep warm in the oven until you are ready to serve; however, keep in mind that the crepe will get softer and lose its crispiness as time passes. The crepes are best eaten fresh out of the pan. 

The flavors of this dish are fantastic. There is a great coconut flavor in the crepe from the coconut milk; you can even smell the coconut while it is cooking. The crepe might be on the heavier side because of the milk, but when made into a wrap, it is well balanced. The freshness of the lettuce, cucumbers, and herbs really lighten up the dish. I also served thinly sliced carrots with the vegetables. 

Other variations of the filling include adding strips of pork loin or pork belly with the shrimp. Fried tofu can be replaced for the shrimp along with mushrooms for a vegetarian option. For the batter, you can also try using beer instead of water for a crispy crepe.