These rolls are ready to be topped with fresh vegetables and herbs. Nguyen Khoi Nguyen
Banh Cuon
A Vietnamese brunch classic
A Vietnamese brunch classic
by Thu Nguyen
If you’re going to make banh cuon, make sure you invite friends and family to come over to feast with you. Like banh xeo, this breakfast or brunch dish makes tons of food. No matter how many people we invite, inevitably there are leftovers that last us through dinner too. The only downside to making this dish is that it requires the cook to juggle a lot of tasks at once, and to continue to work as others sit down for their meal. The tricky part at the end is rolling the crepe, sort of omelet-like, so that you have pork-filled rolls in the end. Each person then eats about two to three rolls topped with diced cucumbers, slices of pork sausage, blanched bean sprouts, crispy golden garlic pieces, and nuoc mam (fish sauce).
Recipe
Serving size: 30 rolls
Serving size: 30 rolls
Ingredients
1.5 lbs ground pork
1 big yellow onion—diced
3 shallots—diced
1/2 clove garlic—diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 dried cat ear mushrooms—submerge in cold water for one hour. Thinly slice.
StuffingIn a large pot, put in vegetable oil and fry your garlic until
excess water in pork is removed.
Add salt and pepper.
Add mushrooms.
Stir up.
Add onions.
Stir occasionally for 10 minutes.
Add pepper to taste. You're done when the stuffing is relatively dry.
Wraps
Mix two bags of bot banh cuon with 8 cups of water.
Mix two bags of bot banh cuon with 8 cups of water.
Watch video below for cooking and wrapping banh cuon.
One of my strongest memories of Mom around food is that she never gets to eat with us; she always eats after, and she won’t even hear of eating until everything is cooked and cleaned up. Of course, you can make people wait until you’re done cooking to eat, but banh cuon tastes better hot. So, I always make a special small dish of it for Mom to snack on while she cooks.
Time to eat! Nguyen Khoi Nguyen