How To Make Perfect Extra Crispy Bánh Xèo

How to make the perfect extra crispy banh xeo? This awesome Vietnamese street comfort food, banh xeo (Vietnamese crepe), is pretty easy to make. The batter is just a bit tricky at times. But no worries, in this recipe, I will show you the tips and tricks in making the perfect banh xeo batter.

3 Tips For Crispy Banh Xeo Batter

This batter will give you a light crispy banh xeo, but also have that gluttonous chewy inside.

Tip #1: Adding a bit of cornstarch to the rice flour gives it an extra crisp. The technique in cooking it is important, but you can improve when you start making lots of banh xeo.

Tips #2: One thing I stress most for this to be a good banh xeo, is to leave the batter in the fridge overnight! Let the flour rise and become sticky and chewy. Cold batter works very well in creating that crispy bottom and chewy top.

Tips #3: I recommend replacing the clear water on top of the batter (after fridge over night) with the beer or sparkling water. Some people use beer for crispy batter. The crispiness and fluffiness comes from the co2 thats from the beer, not necessary the ingredients in the beer. You can taste the hops from the beer and sometimes sourness if used the batter right away. But if you use beer to mix the batter and then put in fridge overnight, the co2 becomes stale, hence the batter won\’t be fluffy nor crispy.

Banh Xeo Batter from Scratch

There are plenty of premix banh xeo batter at your local vietnamese/chinese supermarket. But in most cases, you are not close to an Asian supermarket or none of the pre mix brand gives you that crispy banh xeo that you want, here is the portion which you will need to make your own Banh Xeo flour from scratch.

2 parts rice flour
1 part wheat flour
1 part cornstarch

Banh Xeo Batter Ingredients:
2 pkg pre mixed banh xeo flour (use mixture on top if you don\’t have pre mix)
2-4 tblsp cornstarch (for crispiness)
2 tspn turmeric powder
1 tblsp Salt
2 bunch of thinly sliced green onions (or chives)
2 cans coconut milk
4-5 cups of water (add water base on batter consistency) can fluctuate depending on how thick your coconut milk is.

Mix all ingredients well, cover and let rest in fridge overnight. Ready to use next day. Mix batter up again the next day, the batter should be a bit sticky now.

Nước Mắm For Banh Xeo

The dipping sauce, nước mắm, is as important as the banh xeo itself. There are different methods of making this dipping sauce depending on the regions of Vietnam you are in. It can be adjusted to your taste.

The nuoc mam dipping sauce for banh xeo should be a bit sweeter with the well balance saltiness from your fish sauce. The lime gives it a fresh taste while the vinegar helps to mellow out the acidity of the lime. Plenty of garlic and add chili for your spice level. I use coconut juice instead of water to dilute out the saltiness of the fish sauce and help to balance the sweetness. It should be dilute out with coconut juice enough to where you can actually sip on the sauce without it being too salty.

I did not make the video for the dipping sauce in this video clip, but you can follow my other recipe where I made the same nuoc mam dipping sauce here @ 10:00.

Condiments To Eat With Banh Xeo

Originally banh xeo toppings are just, pork belly, shrimps, sprouts, onions, & some parts in Vietnam, mung beans. I add an egg in mine\’s for extra protein 🙂

However in mid parts of Vietnam, where seafood is abundant, they even add in squid. Though squid tends to wet your batter because of the juice that comes out. I believe the precook the squid first if using regular wok or pan. But when I was small, they used the small clay pot to make banh xeo with the raw squid. It turned out perfectly. I think the clay pot reduce moisture so the banh xep turns out extra crispy and golden!

Banh Xeo is meant to be eaten with mustard greens. We use the large leaf to wrap the banh xeo, mints, and pickled daikon and carrots. Some even use rice paper and lettuce to wrap it for the dipping sauce as well.

And if you are lazy like me, I just put it all in a large bowl and mix it all up and chow down!

Source by [author_name]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcpELP1zU5k&w=560&h=315]