This is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes growing up. I remember making them with my mom and thinking it was a lot of work just to make one! Many, many years later, after moving out of state to Philly, I was craving homemade banh cuon so I knew I had to revisit that memory and try to make it. I was pregnant at the time, so when I craved something, I had to have it. I didn’t have any fancy steamer so I just used a regular non-stick pan. I used a silicone brush to lightly oil the pan first. Evenly pour a thin layer of batter onto the medium heated pan. Note: It’s important you don’t put too much batter onto the pan, that will make your crepes too thick. Let it sit for a few seconds, then cover it to let it steam through for a few seconds more. Now the tricky part. Flipping the pan over and letting the crepes peel itself off with gravity was the best technique I found, to get it onto the prepping surface without it getting stuck together too much. For the filling, it’s good to keep it to a small amount, you don’t want to over-stuff it.
The video below shows how I assembled a roll.
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- 1 lb ground pork
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small onion (chopped)
- 1 cup dried Wood Ear mushroom
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1/2 cup rice flour
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups water
Ingredients
Pork and Mushroom Filling
Crepes Batter
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- Marinate the ground pork with pork/chicken stock powder, salt, sugar, and pepper.
- In a large pan, heat up vegetable oil on medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onion and saute until fragrant (1-2 minutes).
- Add seasoned ground pork and mushroom. Break up the chunks of ground pork with a wooden spoon. Continue cooking until pork is cooked all the way through. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add all ingredients together and stir well. I found that transferring to a pour-able container really helps speed up the process.
- Evenly pour a thin layer of batter onto the medium heated pan. Note: It's important you don't put too much batter onto the pan, that will make your crepes too thick. Let it sit for a few seconds, then cover it to let it steam through for a few seconds more.
- Once it's steamed through, about a minute, carefully flip the pan over onto a flat surface. I used a plastic polyethylene cutting board because it has an easy surface to work with, considering how sticky and delicate the crepes are.
- Once it's transferred from the pan, distribute a little bit of pork and mushroom filling in the center of the crepe, then carefully fold each side over. This technique not only looks more aesthetically pleasing for plating purposes, but also the outer layers aren't too thick as it would be if you were to roll it.
- Assemble crepes in a nicely on a plate and garnish with cucumbers, mint, fried shallots, and bean sprouts. Serve with nuoc mam dipping sauce. For my nuoc mam recipe, click here.
Sometime's I'll have leftover filling after making banh cuon, which I can use to eat with rice the next day.