Bánh cuốn
Bánh cuốn is a Hanoi breakfast: paper-thin, almost translucent rice sheets rolled around minced pork and wood ear mushrooms, scattered with fried shallots and dipped in sweet-sour nuoc cham. In Vietnam the batter is steamed on a cloth stretched over a pot, but at home a non-stick pan and a lid do the job well. It takes patience — there are more than a dozen sheets — but the batter is just rice flour, starch and water, and the result is as delicate as silk.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Resting the batter 30 min
- Filling 15 min
- Rice sheets 35 min
- Serving 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake the batter
Whisk the rice flour, tapioca starch and salt with the water into a thin, smooth batter — thinner than pancake batter. Rest 30 minutes so the flour hydrates.
Ingredients: 200 g rice flour (not glutinous) · 50 g tapioca starch · 700 ml water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil for the pan
Soak the mushrooms
Cover the wood ears with hot water for 15 minutes, drain, trim the hard stems and chop finely.
Ingredients: 300 g minced pork · 15 g dried wood ear mushrooms · 3 pcs shallots · 1 tbsp oil · 1 tbsp fish sauce · ½ tsp black pepper
Cook the filling
Chop the shallots and fry in a tablespoon of oil for 2 minutes. Add the pork and fry 6–7 minutes, breaking it up, until completely grey and crumbly. Add the mushrooms, fish sauce and pepper and cook 2 minutes more.
Ingredients: 300 g minced pork · 15 g dried wood ear mushrooms · 3 pcs shallots · 1 tbsp oil · 1 tbsp fish sauce · ½ tsp black pepper
Crumbly and cooked through, no pink lumps.Make nuoc cham
Dissolve the sugar in the warm water, then add the fish sauce, lime juice, crushed garlic and sliced chilli. It should be sweet, sour and salty at once.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp fish sauce · 3 tbsp lime juice · 40 g sugar · 120 ml warm water · 2 cloves garlic · 1 pcs red chilli · 30 g fried shallots · ½ bunch coriander or mint · 1 pcs cucumber
Cook the first sheet
Heat a 24 cm non-stick pan over medium heat and wipe it with oiled paper. Stir the batter, pour in about 50 ml and swirl it thinly over the whole base. Cover and cook 1 minute, until the sheet turns translucent and lifts at the edges.
Ingredients: 200 g rice flour (not glutinous) · 50 g tapioca starch · 700 ml water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil for the pan
Paper-thin — covered, never flipped.Fill and roll
Slide the sheet onto an oiled tray. Put a heaped spoonful of filling (about 20 g, so it stretches to 16 rolls) at one edge and roll loosely, tucking in the sides. The sheets are fragile — use an oiled spatula to help.
Ingredients: 300 g minced pork · 15 g dried wood ear mushrooms · 3 pcs shallots · 1 tbsp oil · 1 tbsp fish sauce · ½ tsp black pepper
On an oiled tray the sheet will not stick.Repeat
Repeat with the rest of the batter, re-oiling the pan every 2–3 sheets and stirring the batter before each pour, as the flour settles. This makes about 16 rolls.
Ingredients: 200 g rice flour (not glutinous) · 50 g tapioca starch · 700 ml water · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp oil for the pan
Serve
Arrange the rolls on plates and scatter with fried shallots and coriander. Serve with bowls of nuoc cham and sliced cucumber.
Ingredients: 3 tbsp fish sauce · 3 tbsp lime juice · 40 g sugar · 120 ml warm water · 2 cloves garlic · 1 pcs red chilli · 30 g fried shallots · ½ bunch coriander or mint · 1 pcs cucumber
Before you start
Rice flour
You need ordinary rice flour, not glutinous — glutinous flour gives chewy, rubbery sheets. Finely milled flour from an Asian shop works best; rice flour from a supermarket gluten-free aisle is often coarser and gives more brittle sheets. Potato starch can replace tapioca starch, and Asian shops sell fried shallots in jars.
If sheets tear
Tearing means the batter is too thick or the pan too hot — add a spoonful of water and lower the heat. The first two sheets are nearly always worse; that is normal.
Storage
Bánh cuốn is best at once — the sheets harden in the fridge. The filling and nuoc cham can be made a day ahead and refrigerated.
