Vietnamese Stuffed Crepes ~ Banh Xeo

I cannot believe we are already on 22nd alphabet V and in 3-4 days our Around the World in 30 Days culinary tour will conclude. Of all the alphabets, V was probably one of the easiest I have done in terms of finding the recipe and cooking it. I did V for Vietnam. One day I saw Vietnamese crepe recipe from Bon Appetit in my Facebook news feeds. It looked interesting and bookmarked the recipe. Looked for few more recipes for these crepes and decided that V is for Vietnam.

This is the second country I cooked for this marathon. These crepes are made with rice flour and some recipes called for coconut milk to make the batter. I had some left over coconut milk after cooking Sri Lankan curry and used it for these crepes to see how it tastes. Coconut milk I had was less than what most recipes called for, yet it was creamy and gave a nice texture to the crepes.

These crepes were similar to rice flour dosa or biyyam attlu or chila from India except for the color. Vietnamese crepes get that color from addition of turmeric to the batter. What attracted me to this recipe is the shrimp & mushroom stuffing used for the crepes. Indian rice flour crepes do not have any filling and the masala used for dosa, lentils & rice crepes have potato based filling.

We liked the crepes but did not feel like we were eating an international cuisine. Shrimp mushrooms and bean sprouts made an excellent filling for the crepes. I adapted the recipe from two sites to suite our taste.

Adapted from: Closet Cooking and Bon Appetit
Makes: 8 - 10

Ingredients:

Crepes Batter

2 cups Rice Flour
½ - 1 tsp. Turmeric
1 tsp. Salt
¾ cup Coconut Milk (can substitute with water. I used Asian Kitchen Coconut Milk)
2 ¼ cup Water
Oil for making the crepes

Filling:

2 tbsp. Oil
2-3 Cloves Garlic chopped
¾ - 1 lb. Shrimp peeled & deveined
3 – 4 Scallions thinly sliced (more if required)
10 oz. Mushrooms sliced (I used portabella mushrooms but can use shiitake or button mushrooms)
Salt & black Pepper to taste
2 cups Bean Spouts
Lettuce leaves separated, as needed
Cilantro or Coriander Leaves chopped

Preparation:

Crepe Batter: Mix everything listed under crepes except oil to make a smooth paste. Let the batter rest for about ½ - 1 hour. I let it rest for about ½ hour.
Filling: Heat oil in a pan and sauté shrimp with garlic, ½ the scallions, black pepper and salt. Sauté for couple of minutes until shrimp begin to curl up. Add mushroom and continue to sauté until mushroom are cooked and water evaporates. Keep it aside until ready to use.
Crepes: Heat a skillet to make crepes. Add some oil to the pan and spread it around the pan. When the pan is hot, using a ladle pour the batter onto the skillet to make a circle. Swirl the pan to evenly spread the batter. Pour few drops of oil around the crepe and cook on medium flame for about 3 -4 minutes until the crepes are cooked on the bottom.
Add some mushroom shrimp filling to one side of the crepe, along with some bean sprouts, scallions and cilantro. Fold the other end of the crepe over the filling making a ½ circle. Transfer to a plate of lettuce bed and serve hot.
Repeat the same process for rest of the pancakes.
I made nuoc cham, a dipping sauce to serve the pancakes with but we did not like it. This dipping sauce has fish sauce in it. I used as little as possible and still could not tolerate the smell of the fish sauce.