Pork belly (Schweinebauch) is pretty much impossible to find in the US without a trip to the Asian butcher.
I love this grilled until crispy then dusted with sharp paprika, and served with bratwurst, curry ketchup, German mustard, a green salad and a Southern German potato salad. Maybe some thinly sliced white radishes on the side with chives and seasalt. What say @linguafood?
So friggin good. Delishus.
So Asian butcher, they’re not just for Asian any more.
And my Mexican butcher around the corner carries smoked pork loin (Kassler Ripchen), which also comes in handy.
I made some bánh cuốn using a recipe from Andrea Nguyen’s Into The Vietnamese Kitchen. I didn’t have fried shallots, so I used some French’s fried onions as a garnish.
did u make your own wrapper?
I had it in my list to try a month ago, but forgot to see if there is any ready made wrapper in the store.
I know the home made ones are better, but am not sure if I have the time
You are lucky then
In maryland or Va, one has to go the Asian store for them
Alternatively, we used to go to the wholesale butcher shop, buy a whole pork belly.
I liked that better as the ones at the Asian stores typically measures 3" -4"-
The wholesale store can cut them to size for us , prefer the 6" ones
Roast them in my turbo broiler till they are very crispy, dipper ini vinegar soy sauce garlic sauce with a salad called Atchara (Atchara or Atcharang Papaya is an appetizer made from pickled green papaya. Julienned or grated green papaya are placed in airtight containers and soaked for a week in cooked vinegar and sugar mixture with onions, garlic, ginger, peppercorn, and red bell pepper.)
Yes, this recipe called for 0.5 cups each of tapioca starch, cornstarch, and Thai rice flour, along with 3 cups of water, 0.5 teaspoons of salt, and a couple teaspoons of oil. I used half a recipe’s worth.
I have all those ingredients at hand but worry it would be too difficult to make the wrapper?
Perhaps, I should buy some ready made and see if my son likes it
if he does, I will attempt to make it
Did it take u sometime to perfect the crepe wrapper?
I make crepe suzette, ( use ready mix as my brother owns Waffle International and send me the mix for crepes and waffles) but do not use my All Clad non stick omelet pan,
Instead, I just use my tapan grill . It makes a very fast breakfast.
Very fast, I do not care if my crepes are really round .
It was my first time making them and a few came out wrinkled, but I was still able to use those. You basically pour the batter in a thin layer in a preheated nonstick pan, cover, let it cook for 45 seconds, remove cover and let cook for another 30 seconds or so, and then flip it onto an oiled inverted baking sheet.
Do you think tapioca starch is essential? (I have tapioca grains though.)
Other ingredients like cornstarch, rice flour and mushrooms etc, I have them at hand and will like to try it without spending another hour going to buy tapioca flour.
Probably, I’ve seen it in pretty much all the recipes I’ve seen online. Maybe you can make the grains into flour with a food processor/blender/spice grinder?
Hey HOs - just a heads up that nominations for next quarter’s cuisine are now open! Head over to the nomination thread and hit me with your suggestions for fall.
the author’s grandmother thinks adding potato starch makes it less starchyThe combination of rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch makes for a light and thin crêpe without a trace of glueyness.
For crêpes
2 cups rice flour
1 cup potato starch
1/2 cup tapioca starch
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
5.5 cups water
I also prefer sweet potato starch in all my cooking replacing that for cornstarch and wheat flour for thickening and frying, making gravies. I hope she means sweet potato starch as that is what we use. There are two types, the finer and the coarser type. They re usually on display side by side. It is the finer version that I use following what my mother used to do.
It does makes fried food crispier and less mess on the oil .
LET ME KNOW IF YU DECIDE TO MAKE IT WITH THIS VERSION AND RESULT.
Ever since I saw your Banh Cuon, I thought I would try and make some
Was in Va today, googled for the best Banh Cuon, which led me to Eden Plaza in Falls Church. Called the manager who agreed I can bring my emotional support dogs there.
This is the write up of that restaurant called Banh Cuon Thang Long at Eden Center.
They may be small and out of site, but their food is anything but small and absolutely out of site. They are one of two at the Eden Center that can claim this as their Pièce de résistance. The #1 special Banh Cuon is a diner favorite, consisting of minced pork filling and another with shrimp. It’s topped with Cha Lua (pork patties), fried shrimp cake, bean sprouts, cilantro and fried onions. Top that off with their fabulous fish sauce, and you have a little plate of heaven. We recommend a cup of their delicious Vietnamese iced coffee with your meal as well.
We arrived early by 11:00AM for breakfast although I already had coffee and yogurt. There were very few people in the restaurant.
Ordered Banh Cuon and something else that looked good ( my sister thought it was fried fish)
Very disappointed. There were several crepes but it they only contained finely diced carrots. fried shrimp cake was not bad , crunchy but nothing special. Cha Lua pork patties did not look tasty at all, so my portion went to the poms who had raw venison for breakfast . They were not impressed either) Aside from those items, there was fresh bean sprouts and slivered zucchini on the side and some cilantro . The fish sauce tasted as though they watered it down.
As for the other dish called broken rice which my sister ordered thinking it was fried fish without reading , I took a look inside the broken rice. There were fresh bean sprouts and a little bit of ground pork. Neither of us even touched that except for a taste of the broken rice. IMG_0401|700x525the crispy rice. I left my sister there to chat on the phone, went with the poms to the grocery next door to buy some grocery.
Returned at Noon time for my sister who was still chatting on the phone. T
Thanks for the report. Too bad the bánh cuốn was not up to par. The other dish you ordered (in your picture) is bánh xèo, which is neither fish nor broken rice, but rather a coconut flavored fried crepe usually filled with shrimp, pork, and bean sprouts. You can eat it by wrapping pieces of it into some lettuce with some herbs and then dipping it into nuoc cham dipping sauce. I like this dish but haven’t tried making it myself.
I was never too much of a fan of vietnamese cuisine as i like spicy food. I used to make spring rolls ( see my 3/25/17 thread and another one 8/17 which I wrote a blog on but cannot find . I had a party 8/31 and served spring rolls esp since my cuisinart disc had just arrived. I did a detail description of the ingredients used as well as pictures. Wander what happened to it? ) ) with 2 kinds of spring roll covers, one of wheat flour made by Simex and the other one would be the rice paper ( thin ones, with mixture of rice and tapioca as opposed to the pure rice or pure tapioca brand which are too thick or too thin) when my husband was still alive because he has gluten enteropathy. We eat them fresh or pan fried.
Thanks for your taking time out to explain to me about banh Cuo.
My sister should not have ordered the second dish without checking as we did not touch it except for a small bite of the rice when it arrived. I did not even attempt to bring it home. The waitress told us it is broken rice.
I was at the Asian store yesterday, bought some more ingredients and will make some spring rolls ( hopefully soon) and if I do, I will try and see if the banh cuon wrapper will work using my spring roll ingredients as I no longer use rice paper. My son sometimes prefer to just bake the spring rolls in the countertop convection oven until they are crunch as he is more of paleo style.
Let me know if adding sweet potato starch to your wrapper works better or not .
Thanks again
