Michelle ăn Bánh Xèo!

Bánh Xèo (pronounced like bun seo)= A Traditional Vietnamese filled Crepe!

Graduating from college this past May has been really nice because now I can bake and cook more things that I love and will get to post more recipes on my blog more often! When I first started school in 2007, I didn't have to worry about cooking for myself because I lived in the dorms and the kitchen was conveniently downstairs. I would grab a tray, plate my food, get in line, pay for it, and then eat. After my freshmen year was done, I moved into an apartment with my friends and that is when I started to ask my mom how to cook my favorite dishes. The weird thing about asking my mom about the dishes is that she never tells me the exact measurements because she keeps her recipes in her head and cooking comes so naturally to her....so I always end up having to guess the measurements so this is also one of the reasons why I started blogging my recipes for the benefit of myself and when I share mine and my mom's recipes with friends. LOL. She now laughs at me when I take pictures of the food we make!

I don't know if this is just how my family says my name or if it is a Vietnamese thing to pronounce my name but they elongate the -chelle at the end in a way that rhymes with xeo or seo instead of the American way of shell. So it is more like Mi-Seo. Usually when my mom makes this Vietnamese filled crepe, my dad likes to sing this phrase aloud,  "Mi-Seo ăn Bánh Xèo" throughout the whole house! And that means, Michelle eats banh xeo! HAHA

There are different ways to make Bánh Xèo such as adding coconut cream. My family personally does not like the taste of the added coconut cream to the dish so we have always opted out on it. 

The majority of our ingredients come from a local Vietnamese grocery store named Viet-Wah. I guess I should do a blog about a local Asian grocery store sometime in the future. Their vegetables are usually way cheaper than your local American store. 

Ingredients

romaine lettuce

cilantro

green mint

1 English Cucumber sliced

Crepe Mix

 1 bag of Saigon Pan Cake Flour Mix by Trong Food International 

3 cups of water

olive oil

4 chopped green onions

Filling: 

1/4 lb small shrimp, peeled and de-veined, sliced in halves lengthwise

1/4 lb pork loin cut into thin slices

3/4 lb bean sprouts (trimmed)

1/2 cup sweet onion sliced about 1/8 inch thick

1 medium size jicama  

2 cups bean sprouts

optional:  Add 6 oz of Heineken beer. Mom has always done this since I could remember. LOL. 

Directions

Step 1: In a large bowl, whisk together the rice flour, turmeric powder, and chopped green onions. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Set batter to rest for 30 minutes. 

Step 2: Wash and cute all the vegetables and herbs and set aside. 

Step 3: Heat up a 10 inch non-stick saute pan or skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and stir-fry all the pork until half done. Remove from pan and set aside. 

Step 4: Next, heat the pan and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add a portion of onions and shrimp and stir fry until done. Add cooked pork and pour 1/2 cup of batter into pan. Swirl pan to coat bottom evenly. Add bean sprouts and jicama over half the crepe. Drizzple another tablespoon of oil around outer edge of creme and lower heat to medium to get a crispy edge. Repeat about 8-10 times to get 8-10 crepes

Mom's set-up!

   

Step 5: Cover pan and cook for about 1 minute. Remove cover and continue to cook until ledges begin to brown. Loosen crepe from bottom of the pan and when the bottom turns light brown and crispy, fold crepe to encase filling. 

That's it!!!!! This recipe probably makes about 8-10 crepes. 

Method on how to eat banh xeo:

1. Place pieces of cooked banh xeo inside a lettuce leaf with herbs and cucumber, dip in nuoc cham aka fish sauce and eat immediately. It can be a bit messy with this traditional method, but it is delicious! 

2. Or sometimes if I am very lazy....... I will take one cooked banh xeo and rip the lettuce and herbs apart and place it in a bowl and add one ladle of nuoc cham (fish sauce) and eat it using chopsticks or fork. 

Recipe for Nuon Mam Cham aka fish sauce. (coming soon)