Vietnamese crispy crepes or banh xeo are a very popular street food that is sold all over Vietnam. They are thin and crispy savoury crepes that are served with fresh vegetables, herbs and a special Vietnamese dipping sauce. A great recipe to wow your family and friends for lunch or dinner.
What Is Banh Xeo?
To all those who have not had a Vietnamese banh xeo before, it is a crispy yellow crepe/pancake turnover that is stuffed with onions, pork and prawn. In South Vietnam, it is usually served with lettuce, herbs and dipping sauce. The southerners eat it much like sun choy bao where chunks of banh xeo and herbs are placed in a lettuce leaf, then wrapped up and dunked in nuoc mam cham (traditional dipping sauce). It can get pretty messy but I assure you that the taste is well worth the effort!
Getting the Banh Xeo Edges To Frill
The Best Equipment To Use Is A Wok
Traditionally, these crepes are cooked using a large wok. The advantages of this is that the banh xeo batter is able to get high on the wok to create the iconic frills on the edges of the crepes which provide most of the crunch.
If You Have To Use A Fry Pan…
Unfortunately, my kitchen is not a gas stove so I have to use a fry pan instead of a wok.
To mimic the crispy frills in a fry pan, I modify the traditional cooking method slightly. Usually, people will fry one portion of onion, pork and prawn first in the pan and then add the batter on top to form the crepe. My method is to initially cook the filling ingredients and crepe separately, then combine in the end. This does 2 things:
- Pre cooking the ingredients ensures that they are safe to eat and enables you to pump the banh xeo out quicker. This is particularly important when you want to serve them fresh and have a few people waiting.
- The batter can be easily swirled high on the lips of the pan to achieve an even and thin crepe with crunchy edges. It is very hard to create the crispy frills if there are bits of pork, prawn and onion in the pan for those who have little experience. I have found a good demonstration of this technique by a street food vendor in this Youtube video at about 15 seconds in.
I Still Can’t Get The Frills To Work!
If you are having trouble with the “swirling the batter” technique, then cook them like you would a pancake. It is not the end of the world if they are not perfect because they will taste good regardless. But I assure you, once you do get the technique down pat then you will never go back. So go and get your SWIRL on!
Other Recipes You May Like
- Traditional Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls – Goi Cuon
- Deep Fried Crispy Spring Rolls (Cha Gio)
- The Best Vietnamese Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Mam Cham)
- Quick and Easy Beef Pho
- Spring Roll Noodle Bowls – Bun Cha Gio
– Scruff
Vietnamese Crispy Crepes – Banh Xeo
Equipment
- non-stick fry pan with a diameter of roughly 25 cm / 10 in. (Note 1)
Ingredients
Banh Xeo / Crepe Batter
- 200 gm rice flour
- 50 gm corn starch
- 3 spring onions, chopped finely
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
Crepe Filling
- 300 gm pork belly / leaner cuts / chicken / leftovers cut into thin slices
- 300 gm prawns, deveined, peeled and cut into halves lengthways
- 1 medium brown onion, cut into thin slices
- 1 bag bean sprouts, washed
- Vegetable oil for frying
To Serve
Vietnamese dipping sauce - 2 baby cos lettuce or your choice
- 1 bunch coriander, (optional)
- 1 bunch Thai basil, (optional)
- 2 chillies, roughly chopped (optional)
Instructions
Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
- Make the Vietnamese dipping sauce first and then place it in the fridge. Please follow this link for the
Vietnamese dipping sauce recipe.
Crepe Preparation
- Combine all the batter ingredients in a large bowl and whisk thoroughly. Cover with cling wrap and set aside until ready for frying.
- Prep the pork, prawn, brown onion and spring onion.
- In a fry pan on medium high heat, add a tablespoon of oil and sweat the brown onion for 2 minutes. Set aside in a bowl.
- Add another tablespoon of oil to the fry pan and add the pork on medium high. Cook the pork until done then set aside in a bowl.
- Repeat the same process with the prawns.
- Place the 4 bowls containing the cooked pork, prawn, onion and batter next to your stove top.
- If serving the crepes all at once, then preheat the oven to 100 C / 200 F. (Note 2)
Making the Crepes
- Add a 1/4 tsp of oil to a fry pan on medium high and spread it out evenly. (Note 3)
- Use the ladle to stir the batter and then use the 1/4 measuring cup to dip into the batter. Pour the measured batter into the ladle. (Note 4)
- In one hand, hold the fry pan and tilt it away from you. Pour the batter on one side of the fry pan and swirl it around so that the batter is running around near the rims of the fry pan. Then tilt the fry pan so that the remaining batter flows into the middle. (See pictures and video demonstration)
- Using your ladle, cover any holes that have formed in your banh xeo / crepe with batter.
- After a minute add the onions, pork, prawns and bean sprouts on one side of the crepe and allow to cook for a further 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes, check the bottom of the crepe by lifting one side up with an egg flipper. If it feels crispy and there is a tinge of brown on the crepe, then flip one side of the crepe over so that it looks like a half circle.
- Serve the crepe immediately or place on a wire rack and into a preheated oven at 100 C / 200 F.
To Serve
- Place the washed lettuce and herbs on a plate in the middle of the table.
- Give everyone a dipping bowl filled with nuoc mam cham dipping sauce. Include a teaspoon in case your guests would like to spoon the sauce in instead of dipping.
- Serve the banh xeo / crepes on individual plates.
Notes
- If you are a beginner, then I strongly suggest you use a smaller fry pan with a diameter of about 25 cm or 10 in. This is because it is much easier to handle and control when swirling the batter around the pan.
- It is possible to serve all the crepes at once by storing them in the oven. However, I strongly recommend serving each crepe fresh off the stove.
- The first crepe should be a test run to practice your technique and adjust the amount of batter for the size of your pan.
- If you have re calibrated the amount of batter needed for your fry pan size through the practice run(s) then use that measurement instead.
My wife and I visited Vietnam in January and enjoyed Banh Xeo a few times. It was a little different each time, depending on where we were in the country. In Hoi An, they made them using a smallish crepe pan with low sides, added some bean sprouts and starfruit on top and wrapped each folded crepe in rice paper, using two chopsticks to assist in getting a tight roll. We dipped them in a spicy version of the ubiquitous fish sauce dipping concoction. Very yummy!
Hi Eugene! Yes, the recipe and size do vary from region to region. I have personally never had it with star fruit but we substitute it with a herb that has a slightly sour taste. I have also heard of people rolling them in rice paper which at first I thought was odd. But when you think about it, anything wrapped in rice paper and dunked in sauce can’t go too wrong! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience Eugene!
I love these crepes Scruff. This is such a yummy post.
Thanks Gary! Maybe I could try doing it sous vide!!!!
I reckon you should.
I love that there is no egg in your crepes. Not that I’m allergic, it just looks like it would make an awesome light batter. And those soft crispy edges, yum!! What a lovely fresh and light recipe, and good for a gathering of hungry people.
Thank you Kirsty! Yep, it looks like it would have egg but it is egg free, dairy free and gluten free! Which reminds me… I should have wrote that down in the post! Ahhhhhhh….. Yep, the banh xeo when cooked correctly is a very crispy and light crepe. It is a great idea for lunch / dinner for a group of people at a table who don’t mind getting their hands dirty. Thank you Kirsty for your nice comments and reminding me about the egg / dairy / gluten free!