Bánh Xèo - Vietnamese rice pancake with salmon, avocado and mint

    

Bánh Xèo - Vietnamese rice pancake with salmon, avocado and mint

This recipe is a little adjusted for swedish or nordic ingredients and taste. I do have a recipe previously with totally vietnamese ingredients that tastes wonderful. Here is the link to that one as well. Click this link Bánh Xèo

Ingredients:

Avocado

Bean sprouts

Chopped ginger

salmon fillet

Lime

carrots

Mint

Rice flour

Red chili

Spring onions

garlic

Egg

Curry

Japanese soy

cornstarch

Olive oil

Salt

Sugar

White wine vinegar

Directions:

Heat the oven to 150 celsius degrees

Rice pancake: whisk 2 1/4 dl rice flour, 2 teaspoons corn starch, 1 teaspoon curry, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tbs chopped ginger, 1 egg and 2 1/4 dl water in a bowl.

Pour 2 tablespoons of Japanese soy in a greased oven pan. Add 300 g of salmon fillet with the skin side up in the pan of soy. Bake in the middle of the oven 15 - 17 min.

 

Dressing:  Dice together 1 garlic slice, 1 red chilli and 1 tablespoon sugar. Mix 2 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Japanese soy, finely ground and add juice from 1 lime.

Peel and coarse 250 g carrots. Put in a bowl and mix with half the dressing (the rest is used as sauce for serving).

Slice 1/2 avocado, slice 2 spring onions and pick the leaves from fresh mint, about a handful. Rinse a handful beansprouts.

Sprinkle some olive oil into a frying pan. Put in about 3/4 dl pancakemix, fry about ½  min per side. Put on a plate and do the same with the rest of the batter, a total of about 4 rice pancakes.

Fill the rice pancakes with salmon, avocado, spring onion, bean sprout, carrot sallad and mint. Turn over the other half of the pancake to a lid. It is really good to wrap in salad leaves and dip in the dipsauce as well.

Bánh Khọt Rất Ngon

Bánh Khọt Rất Ngon

Vietnamese small pancakes

Banh Khot batter ingredients

500 grams of rice flour

100 grams of glutinous rice flour

1 can of coconut milk

1  1/2 cups of water

2 egg

2 tbs oil

2 teaspoons of ground turmeric

Topping

1/2 cup of yellow mung beans

10 shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 clove of minced fresh chopped garlic

3 spring onions, chopped (discard the white part)

Shredded carrots

Shredded chinese black mushroom

Chopped porkmeat

Serving

For wrapping I used fresh salad leaves and here you can use what you like and have. What is used in Vietnam is springs of coriander, chopped, for garnish fresh Vietnamese mint, chopped, for garnish mustard leaves, for wrapping 

romaine lettuce leaves, for wrapping

fresh perilla and basil herb, for wrapping

Preparation batter:

In a bowl mix the flours  and add the coconut milk until it is a smooth paste. Add smaller amounts of the water at a time until fully mixed, then the turmeric and salt. Beat the eggs together and add to the batter.

Preparation toppings:

Wash and chop shrimp into smaller pieces and sauté quickly in a small amount of vegetable oil with the chopped garlic and the rest of the spring onion and a dash of salt. Set aside.

Fry up the chopped up porkmeat in a little oil and add a pinch of salt and 1 tbs fishsauce. Set aside.

Sauté the rest of the toppings in a little vegetable oil. Set aside.

Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into each indentation of the banh khot pan and heat until beginning to sizzle. Since I did use my cupcake pan I greased the pan with oil with a brush before pouring the batter.

Add batter into each indentation until approximately 2/3 full, cover and cook for about 3- 5 minutes.

Remove the cover and add the toppings to each piece, then re-cover (or for me with using the cupcake pans I put them back inside the oven after adding the toppings.

Cooking complete when the sides of the pancakes are crispy and batter has fully set. (Usually an additional 3-5 minutes, depending on heat of the stove.)

Top each of the pancakes with some chopped coriander and mint if you have this.

Serve with wrapping a pancake in green leaves to make your own spring roll with each pancake and dip in the fish sauce.

Dipping sauce:

1/2 cup water

2-3 tablespoons of sugar (depending on how sweet you’d like your sauce)

1/2 lime, juiced.

3 tablespoons of fish sauce

Optional: 1 clove of garlic (finely chopped) and 2 red chilies (chopped) carrot (shredded)

Mix water, sugar and lime until sugar dissolves. Slowly add desired amount of fish sauce (more is better!) . If you’d like a bigger punch to the sauce, add in garlic cloves and chilies, though these can be served on the table and added to each person’s dipping dish depending on their preference.

Hardware

Banh Khot pan (I don´t have this and they require a gas stove which I also don´t have, so I used my cupcake pans and put in the oven at 250 Celcius degrees for a few minutes until the pancakes fried. And this worked great as well. Still I didn´t get the crisp outside I would have with a real frying pan.  A Japanese Takoyaki pan could also be used or an Danish Aebleskiver pan.  

Mooncakes for the Moonfestival

Mooncakes

This year again I have made the Mooncakes that are used for the Moonfestival throughout Asia and all around the world where you find Asien population.

This year I even had found a real mold for pressing the cakes and was looking forward to trying it.

Here are some pictures from my baking and the recipts can be found under these links from last year.


The recipt for the Mooncakes
http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2012/11/mooncakes-with-norwegian-and-ghanaian.html









How to make the Mooncakes
http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2012/11/my-salted-eggs-are-finally-done-after.html






























How to make the Salted Eggyolks
http://ohemmabjorg.blogspot.se/2012/11/homemade-salted-eggs-before-placing.html

Banh Da Lon

Banh Da Lon

½ cup split yellow mung beans soaked in water 30 minutes, rinse and drain

¾ cup water 

1 drop yellow food color

1 ½ cup tapioca flour/starch

½ cup rice flour

1 cup water

1 can coconut milk

1 ½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon Pandan extract

3 drops green food color

Boil soaked mung beans in ¾ cup of water. Boil, turn down heat and zimmer 10-15 minutes until water evaporates. 

In a bowl mix tapioca flour, rice flour, water, coconut milk, sugar, salt, mix well.

Divide batter in two (1/3 in one bowl and 2/3 in one bowl).

Place cooked mung beans in a blender and add the 1/3 of 

coconutmilk mix batter. Blend one minute until smooth. Pour batter   back in bowl. Add a drop of yellow food color and stir.

Add Pandan Extract and 3 drops of green food color to the 2/3 coconut milk mix batter, stir!

In a steamer carefully place a lightly greased 9 inch non-stick cake pan.

Start ladle in alternating colors, starting with green.
Cover and steam first layer four minutes (until firm o top)

Ladle second layer with yellow and place lid on.

After four minutes place third layer if previous is firm

Alternate the layers this way until batter is finished.

Take off and cool completely before touching. After cooled, use a oiled spatula to loosen up edges to remove to the cutting board. Use knife or pizza slicer to cut cakes in shapes.

Vietnamese sweet and sour fish soup

Vietnamese sweet and sour fish soup

When it comes to soup, we usually think of it as a winter comfort food. But in Southern Vietnam, there are only sunny and rainy seasons. And there are tons of varieties of soups! One example is sweet and sour fish soup, or Canh Chua in Vietnamese, a popular soup that you can order at just about any restaurant or food vendor. It actually tastes heavenly when the weather is hot. It has the perfect blend of sweet, sour and spice, with more than three types of fresh herbs which really enhance the flavor.

Ingredients: (3-4 portions)

3 slices of fresh basa or catfish (or take any fish you like)

3 fresh hot chilies, seedless, finely chopped

1 elephant ear stem, peeled, sliced ⅓ inch thick (this could be hard to find but try an Asian Market, otherwise use some other vegetable you love instead, like fennel or fuzzy squash

1 cup okra, sliced ⅓ inch thick

1 cup bean sprouts, washed, drained well

1 tomato, peeled, cut in wedges

1~2 key limes, juiced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled, chopped

¼ pineapple, peeled

1 tbsp tamarind paste

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp fish sauce

½ cup rice paddy herb, chopped into 1 inch lengths

¼ cup finely chopped sawtooth coriander

¼ cup finely chopped green onion

½ cup finely chopped cilantro

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions:

- Wash the fish, then use a paper towel to pat the fish slices dry. Rub the fish slices with chili. Sprinkle both sides with salt. Then let them marinate for 30 minutes.

- Meanwhile, prepare other ingredients. Mix tamarind paste with 1 cup of boiling water. Let it sit.

- Add oil in a sauce pan. Set over medium heat. When the oil starts to smoke, add garlic. Saute until the garlic smells good and turns light brown, then take the garlic out.

- Add 2 cups of water. Hot oil may splash out of the pan, so be careful. Use a sieve to strain off the pulp and seeds only pour the juice of the tamarind paste in the pan. Then add sugar and salt. Cover and bring to a boil.

- Place the fish into the boiling pan. Reduce the heat to medium low. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. 

Then take the fish out. Cover to keep warm.

- Add  pineapple, tomato. Bring to a boil again.

Add fish sauce, lime juice in bit by bit. Taste the soup for a balance of sweet, sour, spicy, and salty flavor. Adjust to your liking. For more depth of flavor, add a little more fish sauce, or more lime juice if it’s too sweet.

- Let the soup boil again. Then add okra, and elephant ear stems. 

Bring to a boil again. Add the sawtooth coriander, green onion, and cilantro and now you're done!

Add the fish back into the pan if you don't eat right away. 

Before serving add bean sprouts, don´t cook so they keep crispy, sprinkle with fried garlic.

BÁNH CHƯNG (BÁNH TÉT)

BÁNH CHƯNG (BÁNH TÉT)

Vietnamese Rice Cakes for the Lunar New Year

Makes 5 (6-inch / 9 cm ) cakes – plenty to share with friends and family

5 1/2 cups glutinous rice
1 1/2 cups split yellow mung beans
2 pounds fresh or frozen banana leaves
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons peanut oil

Supplies
kitchen twine
wooden or metal mold (optional)
stockpot(s)

Place the rice in a large bowl, cover with water, and let soak overnight. Place the mung beans in a separate bowl, cover with water, and let soak overnight. If using frozen banana leaves, defrost them in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, drain both the rice and mung beans.

Place the mung beans in a pot with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until mashable, about 20-30 minutes. Mash into a paste with a potato masher or spoon.

Meanwhile, heat the peanut oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat and cook the onions until caramelized, about 30-40 minutes.

Add the onions and salt to the mung beans and stir to combine. Spread the mung beans out on a large platter or baking sheet and let cool completely.

Wipe the banana leaves clean with a damp cloth and spread them out to dry. (A laundry drying rack works well; you can also use the backs of chairs.) If the banana leaves are particularly long, you can trim them.

To assemble, lay out two sheets of partially overlapping banana leaves, place a third leaf on top (perpendicular to the first two sheets), and a fourth leaf on top of that (perpendicular to the third sheet). (If using a mold, place it on your work surface first, then line it with the banana leaves in this manner.) Place about a cup of rice in the center of the leaves and spread out to cover a 6-inch square area (about 9 cm), (or to fill the mold). Take about a cup of mung beans and, using your hands, pat it into a slightly smaller square and place it on top of the rice. Then take another cup or so of rice and pack it over the top and sides. Starting with the innermost banana leaf, fold the leaves in one at a time, forming a square. Wrap it tightly like a present so that the contents don't shift or spill during cooking, and tie tightly with twine.

Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil. Add the cakes and make sure they stay submerged (a colander or heavy steamer basket can help keep them under water). If your pot isn't large enough, you may need to use more than one. Simmer until the cakes feel plump and the rice is congealed, about 6 hours. Keep an eye on the pot and add more hot water as necessary to keeps the cakes covered.

Place the cakes in a colander to drain and cool completely.

To serve, remove the wrapping and cut into wedges or slices. Bánh chưng are often eaten with pickled onions or root vegetables, or dipped in sugar for a sweet treat. They can also be sliced, pan fried until golden, and served with sugar. They can also be sliced and dipped in Nuoc Cham Sauce.

Refrigerate for up to 1 week.