Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese Crepes)

Hello! My finals are over and my summer has started, which strikes much envy from my fellow asianposse blogger(s). So in my first weekend home, my mom made bánh xèo, which is a godsend to someone who has been eating the boring food at school and the ever non-healthy friendly spam and rice (four days in a row...ugh, my doctors would be so not pleased). =D She has her own garden of green lettuce and Vietnamese herbs and she said that the lettuce and herbs were too fresh to pass over eating bánh xèo. I was perfectly content with the idea.
I don't eat bánh xèo much because it's not technically my favorite food, but it's been a while since I ate it and when it's a while since you ate something (especially within the Vietnamese cuisine..IT IS HEAVEN).
So, here it is...bánh xèo, a recipe of my mom, and she probably learned it from the women she went to English class with. Yes, my mother went to class to learn English, but she ended up gaining a zillion of recipes instead. ;]
You will need:


-Bánh Xèo mix (found in every Asian supermarket I know)

-Crisp Fried Powder mix (found right next to the bánh xèo mix)


-Pork (you can use only the lean part or you can buy the one with the part meat, part fat and skin)
-Small-sized Shrimp
-Onions (halved and sliced into thing strips)
-Scallions (diced)
-Bean sprout
-Milk
-Salt (a pinch)
-A pinch of MSG (I know! but...if you eat Asian cuisine, you need MSG or else it would taste all bland)
-Oil

Accessories to accompany the dish:
-Red or green leaf lettuce (I prefer green because it's a bit crunchier than red)
-An array of herbs (Fish Mint-diếp cá; Peppermint-húng cay; Spearmint-húng lũi; Sorrel-rau chua; Vietnamese Coriander-rau răm; Vietnamese perilla-tía tô). Remove the leaves from the stem, wash them several times, and let them dry.

-Fish sauce (made with fish sauce, water, lime juice, garlic, red peppers, sugar)

Directions:
-Mix in half a bag of bánh xèo mix with half a bag of Crisp Fried Powder mix, and 3 cups of milk. Add in the diced scallions, a pinch of salt and a pinch of MSG, and mix until the powder dissolves. Let the mixture stand for about half an hour. Use this time to prepare the other things.

-Clean and wash the pork. Put it into a pot and fill it with enough water to cover it. Boil it. When done, drain and leave the pork out for it to cool a bit. Slice the pork into small strips as shown.

-Peel the shrimp if you've bought the one that isn't pre-peeled. Wash with some salt, drain, and set it aside.

-Gather pork, shrimp, onions, bean sprout, and the bánh xèo mix to one area for efficiency.
-Pour oil into a medium size skillet and let it heat up.
-Put in onions, let it sizzle for several seconds.
-Put in several shrimp and mix them around until the shrimp is cooked.
-Pour in the bánh xèo mix, enough to make a thin layer. This would be easy to do if you put in about one soup ladle and roll the mix around in the pan so the liquid would be spread across the skillet.
-Immediately scatter the pork onto the bánh xèo. Quantity is up to preference.
-Scatter in a handful of bean sprout (again, quantity is up to preference).

-Check the bottom to see if the bánh xèo is browning on the bottom. If it is, fold it in half and put it onto a plate.
-Add oil and repeat again to use up all of the mixture. Depending on the skillet size, this recipe makes about 10-12 bánh xèo.

Fish sauce:
-Pour a bowl of hot water and let it cool down a bit.
-Dice in 3-4 cloves of garlic and 2-3 red peppers and put them into an empty bowl.
-Put in about 4-5 teaspoons of sugar
-Cut a lime and squeeze the juice in. (You can use half or all depending on the size. You know you have enough lime juice when the contents look smoothie-like)
-Add in the half of the water from the bowl, slowly, and stir the contents at the same time.
-Add in the fish sauce until the color looks light reddish brown. Taste and begin to perfect the sauce to your taste buds. If it's too salty, add some sugar and water. If it's too bland, add more fish sauce. Remember, it's the sauce that makes or breaks the cuisine.

Bánh xèo is traditionally eaten by wrapping the lettuce and herbs around it, making it sort of like a spring roll, and then dipping it into fish sauce. However, like my sister likes to eat them (without getting her hands dirty), put everything into a plate, pour fish sauce over it, and eat it with a chopstick. =]
It's a very good dish with all the nutrients needed daily: fibers, proteins, starch. But gosh, with the way my mom likes to cook everything I want to eat, I will need to exercise more!


Much love from Allison to the rest of the posse who have their finals coming up! <3