Bánh Xèo- Vietnamese Savory Crepes
My friend Erin is always the first person to volunteer to go eat Pho with me in Nashville, and I rediscovered my love for Bánh Xèo by showing my favorite gluten free friend the magic of these savory crispy crepes. It’s my favorite Vietnamese restaurant appetizer, and seems like the perfect way to begin this culinary journey. They aren’t difficult, timing is the only trick.
Everyone in our family makes them slightly differently but I’ll provide the basic recipe and a few alternatives as provided by favorite relatives. My mom walks me through making them in the video below.
INGREDIENTS:
BATTER:
1 package of Bot Bánh Xèo (Amazon or at most Asian Grocery Stores)
1 package of Bot Chien Gion/ Crispy Rice Powder (Amazon only sells multi-packs of this brand)
1 Beer, room temperature (Club soda/Seltzer also works as a substitute)
1 Can/Box of Coconut Water (or Coconut Cream)
2 TBS Cooking Oil
1 bunch of thinly sliced Green Onion
2-3 TBS Turmeric for color (if your Bot Bánh Xèo mix did not come with it)
FILLING:
Bean Sprouts/Mung Beans
Shrimp (peeled, de-veined, butterflied, and sautéed - slightly under-cooked)
Pork (thinly sliced and sautéed - slightly under-cooked)
Yellow onion (thinly sliced and sautéed)
Cooking oil
Enoki mushrooms (optional)
SOY DIPPING SAUCE:
1 part water, 3 parts low sodium soy sauce
add a splash of sesame oil (less than a teaspoon)
Sriracha to taste (optional) and/or chopped thai chilis
Togarashi (optional, Amazon)
Traditionally served with Fish Sauce/ NƯỚC MẮM/CHẤM is a staple of Vietnamese cooking. Try this recipe until I can get my grandma's fancy pineapple version down.
SERVING:
Fresh mint (pick leaves off stems)
Thai Basil (pick leaves off stems)
Cilantro
Leaf Lettuce (mixed greens and romaine also work)
Bánh tráng/spring roll wrappers (optional) + hot water to soften the wrappers
Batter Basics
BATTER:
Prepare the batter and let it rest 30-90 minutes prior to making the meal. The batter comes together and crisps up best after approximately 60-90 minutes of rest.
In a large bowl, mix 1 full package of Bot Bánh Xèo, Bot Chien Gion, turmeric (add 2-3 teaspoons of ground turmeric if your package of Bot Bánh Xèo did not come with it,) 2 TBS of cooking oil, and 4 cups of liquid. This liquid should be a combined 32 fluid ounces of room temperature beer, coconut water/coconut cream and water depending on the size of the cans of other liquids used. Add 1 bunch of thinly sliced green onions, whisk, and set aside to rest. The batter should be a thin crepe batter that easily runs off your ladle.
FILLING:
Lightly season peeled/deveined/butterflied shrimp with black pepper and garlic powder and thinly sliced pork with the same plus a little salt. Saute individually in oil on medium high heat until slightly under cooked to streamline your crepe making. Remove from heat and let rest on a large plate.
Thinly slice a large white or Spanish onion and sauté in oil until cooked through.
Wash and dry a package (or three large handfulls) of bean sprouts, a package of enoki mushrooms, and more green onions. It helps to have these arranged on a cookie sheet or tray so you can grab handfulls and toss into your batter.
Time to cook!
COOKING:
Put at least two non-stick frying pans on your stove with the burners on high. Into each pan, add a cap full of cooking oil, several pieces of pork, shrimp, and some of your sautéed onions. Pour a large ladle full of batter into the pan, add mushrooms, green onion, and bean sprouts. Lower the heat to half power to finish cooking once all ingredients are in the pan. Fun fact- the sizzling sound the batter makes is how the dish got its name. The hope is to get them as crispy as possible. You are looking for the edges to pull away from the sides of the pan, and for the batter to be uniformly cooked- no wet/shiny spots. Lift one of the edges and check the bottom, if it is brown and the crepe is crispy, you are good to fold the crepe in half and serve.
SERVING:
The crepe can be eaten plain or wrapped in lettuce, and dipped in sauce. But you’ll want the herbs and spring roll wrapper for the tastiest/fullest (and easiest to eat) experience.
Fill a bowl with water as hot as your sink can dispense it. You can also supplement with water heated on the stove or kettle. Dip a spring roll wrapper in the hot water until the entire surface has been moistened. You don’t have to soak it long, just make sure there aren’t any parts of the rice paper that didn’t get damp. The wrapper will get stickier and harder to take off the plate the longer it sits, so move quickly but don’t get your heart rate up racing the clock.
Placing one large lettuce leaf on the wrapper first is your best buffer against breakage, add the leaves of the basil and mint (don’t use the stems.) You can use all of the cilantro, I just suggest ripping it in half so you aren’t fighting the strings to take your bite. Break off a nice sized chunk of your crepe and roll the whole thing like a burrito. Keeping all of the filling on one side of the wrapper helps you roll it nice and tight, tucking the ends keeps the filling from falling out. Dip in sauce and enjoy!
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NOTES:
Wood chopsticks definitely come in handy here. Please don’t cook with the plastic ones. A large spatula like this will save a LOT of aggravation when you’re cranking these out.
I typically wash all of the herbs and vegetables and serve them in a pyrex baking dish that has a lid. It makes it nice and easy to put the leftovers away and take it back out for round two the next day.
This is a dish best served family-style. It’s not even close to worth the effort to make it for one or two people, and it’s hard to reduce the recipe. You want to cook them to order so they will stay nice and crisp. You can store the batter in an air tight container and the fixings in the fridge, and make them over the course of a couple of days. If the batter dries out a little, just slowly add a bit of water. The leftovers can be reheated in an oven or air fryer, but it won’t come close to cooking them to order.
Depending on your hunger, stomach and pan size, you can estimate 1-2 crepes per person. We probably made 10-12 crepes from the one package of batter mix.
The ingredients without the batter are all you need for Vietnamese spring rolls, so planning to make both dishes are your most efficient use of groceries. You’ll just want to make vermicelli rice noodles and slice some cucumbers and apples to join the party.
My great-grandmother and aunts all use coconut cream vs the coconut water. It really is a matter of preference. Some family members swear adding AP flour helps with the color and texture and that it works just as well as the Bot Chien Gion/Crispy Rice Powder. They also cook on medium high and then medium heat. My Aunt Nam swears that cooking covered for a few minutes and then removing the cover for the last few minutes achieves the crispiest effect, even when using only water in the batter. I plan to visit her and test this theory for us. This blog has some great instructions on following those methods. Everyone has their own secrets and technique- the beauty of it is you have plenty of opportunities to experiment while cranking these out for the people you love.
Cheers and lots of love from my family to yours!
Lyss
