Banh Xeo - Vietnamese Crepe

I made Banh Xeo for my lunch today. It's my very first Banh Xeo - I'd never eaten Bahn Xeo before but had heard and read a lot about it. That's why I really wanted to try to make one myself today. I got the recipe from Quick and Easy Vietnamese Home Cooking for Everyone by Andre Nguyen and Yukiko Moriyama, but I changed the measurements for the ingredients a bit here and there. My Banh Xeo turned out to be very good, although it was quite tricky to make sure that my crepe didn't break - I suppose the trick is to make sure that the batter rests for quite some time.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients (makes 3)
Batter

• 1 cup of rice flour
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tbs of coconut milk
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt and pepper

Filling

• 100 gr prawns
• 100 gr minced meat
• 100 gram bean sprouts
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 medium onion, sliced
• Spring onions, chopped

The ingredients

The cooking process

First, combine all batter ingredients in a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes-1 hour. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a skillet and cook the ingredients for the filling, set aside in a bowl.

Grease skillet and pour a quarter portion of batter into it. Make a thin omelete-like crepe. Sprinkle the crepe with some of the cooked filling - you can actually also add the bean sprouts now, instead of frying it together with the meat and prawns, but I just don't like the taste of raw or almost raw bean sprouts, that's why I pan-fried it longer with the meat and prawns in advance.

Fold the crepe in half. Make 3. Serve with lettuce, cucumber slices, carrot slices or any kind of greens of your choice. Don't forget the Nuoc Cham (sweet chilli sauce) dipping sauce! You can get this sauce in most Asian supermarkets.

I hope this recipe can help anyone who wants to have a go at making their own Banh Xeo! Enjoy!