Thursday, March 8, 2012

Steph's Steps to Making Banh Beo

Complete: Drop #51- Make Bánh Bèo

Bánh Bèo

     I first encountered this deliciousness about a year ago at a Cambodian/Vietnamese fast food joint in Lowell, MA. I absolutely loved it! Since then I've made it my mission to add this to the growing list of Vietnamese meals I can cook.

     I've been known to tweak some things here and there.   (I do this with American recipes too.) I don't mean to insult- I respect those who use traditional methods of cooking Vietnamese foods. But there are many different ways of making things, and if the result is an improvement on the original, why not? If my husband sees me making a meal differently than what he's used to seeing, he'll insist it'll come out horrible! But when he doesn't see how I made something and just tastes it, he almost always loves it.

Ingredients:
Banh Beo Ingredients
Ingredients for Bánh Bèo 
  • 12 oz Package Bánh Bèo Mix
  • 4 Cups Warm Water
  • Fried Shallots
  • 1/2 Lb Fresh Shrimp
  • 9 Tbsp Dried Shrimp
  • 1 Bunch Scallions
  • 1 Small Onion
  • 1 Clove Garlic





Directions:


Step 1: Prepare the Batter
     Empty package in a bowl, mix in the four cups warm water until smooth and not lumpy. The batter will be very loose and watery. Let sit for about 25-30 minutes.

Step 2: Prepare Toppings
     In the meantime, prepare your shrimp toppings. There are two. The first one is made from the fresh shrimp, and the second one is made from the dried shrimp.
Bring a pan of water to a boil. Toss your fresh shrimp in to the water and then quickly remove them. Set them aside. Dump the hot water in to a bowl and throw your dried shrimp in there. Put this bowl aside for about 20 minutes.


Making
"Cotton Shrimp"
Drying Shrimp Banh Beo
Dry crushed shrimp in the wok


     This is probably my favorite part of Bánh Bèo . Peel your fresh shrimp- (don't worry if they are still fairly raw.) Dry them with a paper towel. Heat up your wok or another nonstick pan on medium-low heat. Crush the shrimp with the flat end of a butcher knife or another large knife, and then add the shrimp to the wok. The purpose here is not to cook the shrimp, but to dry them out.




cotton shrimp
"Cotton Shrimp" should be fine and dried out in texture. The brown bits
here are pieces that stuck on the bottom and fried a bit. I kept them.



      Once shrimp are fairly dry, put in to mortar and crush. Return to the pan, dry, crush, return to pan, dry, crush until the shrimp is a fine, 'cottony' texture. Set aside.





Making Crushed Shrimp
Crushed Shrimp
Ground dried shrimp
     After the dried shrimp have plumped a little (approx. 20 mins) separate the water from the shrimp. SAVE THE WATER! Place the shrimp on a paper towel, squeeze out the excess water, and chop in to little pieces. Squeeze out any extra water again, and chop. The consistency should be almost dusty. Use a blender/food processor if you have one. Set aside.


Making Scallion Topping
     Thinly chop the scallion, onion, and garlic. Saute quickly in an oil-coated pan. The goal here is just to release the flavors. Set aside.


Step 3: Make Bánh Bèo Cakes 

pan for banh beo
My ghetto Bánh bèo steaming contraption 
     If you're efficient, the above should hopefully take you no more than 30 minutes.

     Now all you have to do is make the cakes! You can use little shallow bowls, or you can run to your local Asian market and pick up some pans. I only had one pan so this step took me a very long time, but if you want to work quicker you can buy multiples. My pan was also too big for my pots, so I had to steam them in my wok. Minor setbacks.

     Whatever container you're using, make sure to coat it with oil so the batter doesn't stick. put water in your pan and bring it to a boil. Add the mixture so that it is about 2/3 of the way full. Make sure to cover your pan while it steams. Steam the cakes for about 5 minutes, remove them, and then repeat until your batter is gone.


Step 4: Fish Sauce/Dipping Sauce
     This recipe is no good if you don't make the accompanying dipping sauce. I made the sauce for this nearly identically to how I make my regular fish sauce, except I replaced the water with the reserved liquid:

Fish Sauce:
  • Reserved Shrimp Water
  • 1 Lime
  • 2 Cloves Garlic (grated)
  • 1 Serrano Pepper (sliced in rings)
  • 6 Tbsp Sugar
  • Fish Sauce
Put your reserved shrimp liquid in a pan along with the juice from a lime, your sugar, the garlic and the Serrano pepper. Heat until sugar has melted. Add the fish sauce to taste, then set aside.

Step 5: Dressing the Bánh Bèo

Make Banh Beo
Final Product!


     Lay the little steamed cakes. Layer with cotton shrimp, chopped dried shrimp, scallion topping, and fried shallots. Before eating, drizzle the dipping sauce over the top.













Bánh Bèo
Bánh Bèo

     These were absolutely delicious- better than the ones that we picked up in Lowell. Like many Vietnamese recipes the grunt of making these came with the prep work, but overall the dish itself was very easy to make!

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