What is bánh cuốn?

Bánh cuốn come from northern Vietnam, and in Hanoi they are a typical breakfast dish. Bánh stands for a dough product or cake, and cuốn means to roll. At a street stall the cooks stretch a cloth over a pot of boiling water, spread the batter on it paper-thin and lift the cooked sheet off after a minute with a flat bamboo stick. Online you will also find the dish as banh cuon or bahn cuon, and the same thing is meant.

Bánh cuốn and bánh ướt

Without filling, the rice sheets are called bánh ướt, literally wet cake. You eat them folded with slices of chả lụa, the Vietnamese pork sausage, and nuoc cham. For bánh ướt, leave out the filling from the recipe card and fold each sheet twice.

The right ingredients

• Rice flour: Use rice flour from an Asian grocery store, labeled rice flour on the bag. Glutinous rice flour makes the batter tough and sticky.
• Tapioca starch: Many Vietnamese cooks swap a quarter of the rice flour for tapioca starch. The sheets become more elastic and tear less often when rolling. For the card, that means 150 g rice flour and 50 g tapioca starch.
• Mushrooms: In Hanoi, dried wood ear mushrooms go into the filling, and they stay crunchy after soaking. The card uses shiitake, which bring more flavor. Soak dried mushrooms in warm water for 20 minutes, and you will find tips under how to prepare shiitake.
• Fish sauce: For the filling and the dip you need a light, clear fish sauce from Vietnam or Thailand.

How to make the rice sheets

Let the batter rest

Stir together rice flour, water, salt and oil and let the batter stand for 30 minutes. During this time the flour swells and the sheets turn out smoother. Stir once before each sheet, or the rice flour sinks to the bottom and the last sheets come out too thick.

The pan method

At home, a nonstick pan with a glass lid replaces the stretched cloth. Brush the pan thinly with oil and set it over medium heat. Pour in 3 tbsp batter, swirl the pan until the bottom is covered and put the lid on. After about a minute the sheet is translucent and lifts at the edge. Flip it onto an oiled plate. This gives you about 14 sheets from the batter on the card.

Fill and roll

Put a heaping tablespoon of filling at the bottom edge, fold in the sides and roll up the sheet. With oiled fingers the batter does not stick to your skin. Lay the finished rolls side by side on a platter and cover them with a second plate.

Common mistakes

• Sheets too thick: More than 3 tbsp batter per sheet gives rubbery rolls. Swirl the pan quickly, because the batter sets in seconds.
• Pan too hot: On high heat the underside browns and turns firm. Bánh cuốn stay white and soft.
• Wet filling: Fry the ground pork and mushrooms until the liquid has cooked off. A moist filling softens the thin sheet and it tears.

Variations

For a quick version, use rice paper, as listed on the card under alternative. Dip the sheets briefly in warm water, fill them and steam the rolls for 3 minutes in a steamer insert. They turn out firmer than fresh batter, but you save yourself the frying of the sheets. For a vegetarian filling, replace the ground pork with crumbled firm tofu and double the amount of mushrooms, and season with soy sauce instead of fish sauce. You find a matching fish-free dip with the vegetarian bánh xèo.

What to serve with it

In Hanoi, fried shallots go over the rolls and a few slices of chả lụa on the plate. For dipping you need nuoc cham, which you also serve with gỏi cuốn and chả giò. For a bigger Vietnamese meal, cook a bowl of phở bò alongside or fry bánh xèo with shrimp.