What I enjoyed about this recipe in particular is that it allows me to create a big platter of omelette fillings to set on the table to be served from. I love to cook this way, as it allows for a wide range of customization within a single meal, making it easy to suit my tastes in the moment or allow guests to adapt the meal to their own preferences. This also makes it easy to substitute other fillings in if you are shy one or don't particularly care for a listed ingredient. Everything here is also very fresh, with a minimum of cooking, which allows me to keep the kitchen cool during the warmer weather we've been having lately - not to be undervalued in a tiny place with no air conditioning. The meal also came together quickly - even with vegetable prep, I think this took ~15-20 minutes to put together, and I could probably streamline it to a solid 15 with a bit of tinkering in the recipe order.
Try this one. I don't think you'll be disappointed. As usual, the ingredient list is as presented in the book and the written description includes my alterations and observations.
Bánh xèo
(p. 54, Plenty)
Serves 4
Pancakes
1 1/3 cups rice flour
1 small egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 3/4 cups coconut milk
a little bit of sunflower oil
Sauce
2 1/2 tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 fresh red chile, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp salt
Filling
1 large carrot, peeled
1 daikon radish, peeled
4 green onions
1 fresh green chile
1 1/2 cups snow peas
1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
2/3 cup loosely packed Thai basil leaves
1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1 cup enoki mushrooms
First, a few alterations: I only had large eggs, and so used one of them rather than a small one. I also was out of coconut milk, and so substituted almond milk which I had on hand. I will make the omelettes with the coconut milk next time to see what the difference would be. I was also out of rice wine vinegar, and so substituted white wine vinegar. I grated the garlic on my rasp grater and added it to the sauce rather than having a crushed clove floating around. I was out of mint, and so that was omitted. I also was out of sunflower oil, so I used unflavoured olive oil instead.
To prepare the pancakes, whisk together the flour, turmeric, and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl or measuring cup add the coconut milk and egg and whisk together until well combined. Set aside both mixtures until you want to make the omelettes. Yotam advises that you can mix the wet and dry ingredients together now, but that the batter will thicken as it sits and require thinning with additional coconut milk or water before it is cooked into omelettes. I decided to not mix the wet and dry ingredients together until I was ready to cooke them to avoid having to tinker with thinning the batter later.
To make the sauce, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Feel free to adjust the amount of chile to your desired heat preference; at this level, there is a very mild heat. I think if I were to do it again, I'd raise it to two chiles. Set the sauce aside until serving.
To prepare the filling, shred the carrot and the daikon. I used the large holes on a box grater and that worked well. Slice the green onions on an angle into thin pieces, and the snow peas into long, thin strips. Pick the herb leaves from their stems and put them into an appropriate bowl for serving. Slice the chile into long, thin strips as well, cleaning out the ribs and seeds to mitigate some of the heat if you so desire. Place the prepared herbs and vegetables onto a platter or into individual bowls according to your preferences. Add the mushrooms and the bean sprouts to the platter or place them within their own serving dishes. Set the fillings aside until you are ready to serve the meal.
To make the pancakes, combine the dry mixture of ingredients with the wet ingredients that had been set aside earlier. Whisk thoroughly to combine them. You are aiming for a thin, very fluid batter that Yotam describes as having the consistency of light cream. Heat up a frying pan (Yotam suggests nonstick; I had to use what I had, which required more oil), and add a minute amount of sunflower oil. Let the pan come up to roughly medium heat - you don't want things too hot here.
Pour roughly 1/4 of the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth it out into a circle. The edges can be thinner than the middle and get crispy if you like them that way, or the pancakes can be all the same thickness. I found the batter had a tendency to make cakes that were thicker in the middle and therefore required a bit of help from me smoothing them to have a more even thickness throughout. Let the cake sit undisturbed in the pan for 2-3 minutes, or until the underside starts turning a golden brown colour and the top of the cake has bubbles popping on most of its surface. Flip the cake over and cook for another ~2 minutes until the other side has started to turn golden as well. Remove from the pan to a serving plate and keep warm while you cook off the remaining three pancakes.
To serve, place a warm pancake on a plate and arrange your desired vegetables and herbs over it.
Drizzle with some sauce and dig in. I found it enjoyable to fold each side of the cake over the filling and eat it like an open-bottomed burrito, or you could fold it in half like a taco if you wanted to, or even use a knife and fork. I found the sauce would seep through the cake fairly easily and so get onto my fingers, but I figured that was part of the fun.
Enjoy!
Leftover fillings and sauce held well in the refrigerator overnight last night, but the leftover cakes came out stiff and more prone to breaking. I'd recommend making the cakes fresh each time you want them.
