Cooking Mama Vietnam Banh Xeo aka Vietnamese Pancakes Episode
Cooking Mama China came over for brunch on the weekend and we decided to make Banh Xeo. Banh Xeo is a savoury vietnamese pancake typically filled with pork, prawns, beansprouts and mung beans. The beauty of cooking this dish at home is you can do it to your liking.
The pancake batter has a coconut and tumeric taste, crispy as possible on the outside and ever so soft and gooey in the center. It is served with Ngoc cham, a dipping sauce made from fish sauce and is very refreshing when wrapped in lettuce and dipped as a mini roll.
Banh Xeo
Served with nuoc cham, lettuce and mint.
Extra Crispy Goodness
This one is crispier
Banh Xeo Innards
Mum’s fillings for the day is minced pork and prawns, pre-fried with seasonings, finished off with a sprinkle of bean spouts.
Cripsy Outside
This is what you want to achieve. It always takes a few tries until you get your desired result.
Lard Surprise
For extra flavour, we extracted lard from pork fat for greasing up the pan… a delicious alternative to oil. Optional of course!
Another surprise which was revealed to me, is that my mum used beer in the batter! I will have to post a batter recipe once we’ve perfected it and I’ve written something down.
Longan Dessert Drink
For our beverage, mum whipped up her chilled longan drink made up of dried longan and palm sugar.
Ca Phe Sau Da – Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Vietnamese ice coffee made with Trung Nguyen coffee beans. Traditionally condensed milk is used instead of fresh milk and I like mine extra sweet. You can also have it hot, but nothing beats coffee in crushed ice.
This vietnamese coffee filter set can be purchased at any Vietnamese grocery store for under $10.
Pandan Chiffon Cake
I made a my first pandan chiffon cake! Frosted it and everything. The chiffon cake turned out moist and delicious, however the icing was not as light as I was hoping or hold the way I wanted. I used heavy cream so maybe next time I will try whipping cream.
Pandan Chiffon Cake Innards
The innards was nice a green, the way I wanted. This cake was even better the next day after being chilled.
