Something different for pancake day
Assuming you’re willing to deviate from your tried and tested recipe
I hesitate to offer you this suggestion for two reasons
First you may very well say to me why on earth should I want to top a pancake with anything other than lemon and sugar on Pancake Day, of all days?
And secondly it’s Vietnamese and, Fi, you’ve been banging on about Vietnam for several weeks now. Give us a break!
However it is very good and I’m rather proud of myself for having nailed it.
It also happens to be Vietnamese new year, aka Tết, tomorrow.
The inspiration comes from the bánh xèo at Quan Bui Original the restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City I wrote about a couple of weeks back and is an insanely delicious crisp, prawn or prawn and pork-filled rice pancake you pull apart, stuff into a handful of salad leaves and herbs and dunk in nước chấm (Vietnamese dipping sauce).
There are various recipes online but I settled for this one from Serious Eats on the basis that I’d rather go for a recipe from a website that is likely to subject its recipes to some kind of testing process than take pot luck with an influencer or blogger I don’t know. Though I do quite like the look of this one from Hungry Huy.
Anyway these are the crucial things to bear in mind if you want them properly crispy (or crisp for those of you who get irritated by the y)