Friday, September 23, 2005

Vietnamese Pancake

I was first introduced to this dish by my hubby a couple of years ago - in which during that time, I was not into cooking or baking. The first thing that I noticed about this dish was the amount of beansprouts .. most of their dishes have loads of bean sprouts, mostly raw. One thing I find about vietnamese during my visit there is the amount of raw vege that they consume. You can hardly find any overweight ladies or elderly there. Majority of them are petite - which makes me feel like a 'king kong' when I was with them *LOL*

Ok back to the dish, this is a very simple dish. There are many ways that you can eat it, but I like to wrap it in lettuce, mint leaves and dip in the sauce. Yummy !!!


vietnamese_pancake1

A plate full of them :)

vietnamese_pancake2


What you see above was made with a premix. I have also made using a recipe shared by one of the forum member at Jodeli's forum, tt and find the homemade ones tastes better.

Ingredients
Batter
1/2 cup cooked rice
2 1/2 cups coconut milk or water or milk (I used half coconut milk, half milk)
175g rice flour
50g potato starch
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp salt
oil

Toppings/fillings
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
200g chicken fillet, sliced (I omitted this)
200-300g small shrimp, remove skin and head
300-400g bean sprouts
1 cup cooked mung beans (I omitted this)

lettuce, mint/basil for garnishing

Method
Batter
1. Put rice and coconut milk in a blender and blend until smooth
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and let it rest for about 1/2 hour before use

Pancake
1. Add a little oil to a non stick pan
2. Add some onions, shrimp and chicken, stir fry until 1/2 cooked
3. Add some batter and “twist” the pan so the batter coats the bottom of the pan evenly
4. When the pancake is half cooked, sprinkle bean sprouts and mung beans in the middle
5. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 3-5 mins, until the pancake is crispy
6. Fold the pancake in half and continue to cook for about 1-2 mins and transfer to the plate
7. Repeat same process for the rest of the batter and filling
8. Serve with herbs and dipping sauce

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

zu, using rice to blend to make the batter. its very much similar to the Indian Appam recipes which Devagi shared with me. Interesting. Going to try later. thanks for sharing.

FooDcrazEE said...

its true that Vietnamese food are healthy. Was there for near 4 yrs and i hardly put on a single ounce. Immediately when i came back to Malaysia - starchy, oily food, i put on 13 kg within 5 yrs and i am on a diet and exercise regime to lose 5 kg within 6 mths.

*chuckle* how do i earn my nick. lolz

Anonymous said...

Hi Zu, jus found your blog and really like it! I too am a mom and find your recipes very practical and easy. Will definitely try some soon! Thanks! Feel free to visit my blog at http://www.bimandruth.com/ruth/weblog.html

irris said...

kak Zu, I've linked you on my multiply site! Boleh kan? (hehe, dah link baru tanya).

- pinktulip

jadepearl said...

Hi Zu,

Selamat berbuka puasa!
Hope I got that right :)
So, what are you cooking for dinner? I bet its yummylicious!

Aliyah said...

siz.....whr do i get the potato starch eh? *scratch head*

Zurynee said...

Gina: You are welcome :)

foodcrazee: You bet, me just jealous looking all those petite women + their smooth skin :)

spots: Hi spots *waves* welcome :)

irris: No problemo :)

jadepearl: thanks jadepearl, I am working so we just settle for something simple :)

aliyah: You can get it at supermarkets or provision shops easily dear :)

Anonymous said...

Uhm... Hi Zu!
I'm Ann and from Viet Nam.
I read your ingredient then I feel a bit weird. Actually, we never use cooked rice to do pancake.
You should use rice flour,duck eggs(to give the yellow color and more tasty),a little bit curry powder, spring onion( cut small pieces)and mix up with water. It's supposed to be watery.
By the time you fried, you should always stir this mixture,so that the flour and water wont fall apart and try to pour as thin layer as you can :P
I'm really appreciated to learn how to cook soya bean curd from you. By the way where can find GDL = lactone? What role this lacyone play in this process?
Can you send me an email via haianqv@hotmail.com? I'm really appreciate to see your reply.
Thanks :)
Ann

Zurynee said...

Hi Ann,

This recipe was shared by another vietnamese :-) But it does taste better than the store bought premix .. hehe

Thank you for the information. Maybe i will try with your ingredients.

Zu

Anonymous said...

Hi, Zu. I'm from Vietnam, too. I've heard that some Vietnamese women put cooked rice in to help make the crepe crispier, but we don't use potato starch. I agree with Ann that we put chopped green onions in the batter (for the flavor and decorative purpose, I guess) and stir it frequently. Because the crepe is very thin, we put the bean sprouts in immediately then cover and cook for about 1 minute. After the lid is removed for the crepe to become crispy.