Category Archives: indian

Vegetarian/Vegan Bánh Bèo – Savory steamed rice cakes

17 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in dahl, gluten free, party bites, rice noodles, Sauces, snacks, vegan, Vegetarian, Vietnamese

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banh beo

I thought I’d try my hand at some Bánh Bèo since I picked up a bag of the flour mix recently. By accident–I thought I had grabbed banh xeo flour. These are a mini steamed rice cake. They are soft and light, made of rice and tapioca flour, and a bit of potato starch.

I love Vietnamese food, but I’m a self-taught (youtube-taught) American vegetarian who is probably brutalizing these wonderful traditional Vietnamese dishes in my quest for maximum flavor vegetarian food. But I’m learning a lot, and this is what I want to eat.

Bánh Bèo are traditionally filled with mung bean paste and dried shrimp, and of course served with fish sauce. Here’s youtube video of a more traditional method. And this blog here: Runaway Rice. Mung daal/dried mung beans are great to have knocking about your pantry. They are an important ingredient in Indian food (yummy daal, sambar, and idli), as well as Vietnamese food. I used mung bean, chopped egg, and fried garlic as our toppings this morning, whipped up an easy vegan ‘fish sauce’. By all means, if you are vegan, leave out the egg and replace with crumbled tempeh, mushroom (or whatever you fancy).

As you can see, I now have another use for my idli steamer!

Recipe below:

Ingredients
For approximately 36 steamed mini rice cakes
1 bag Bánh Bèo flour
4 cups warm water
1/2 tsp salt
Steamer (mini muffin tins or small little bowls placed in a stove-top steamer will work)

For fillings/toppings
1 cup dried mung beans/mung daal/dried split yellow lentils
2 cups water
salt and white pepper
olive oil
6 green onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
Other toppings such as chopped tempeh, mushrooms, or egg, pickled carrot or daikon

Quick sauce
1/2 cup light soy sauce (light in color, not light in sodium!)
1/4 cup water (or 1/8 water, 1/8 pineapple juice)
1 tsp agave syrup
1/2 tsp sliced chili and green onion

1) Mix the bag of Bánh Bèo flour with water and salt and place in fridge to rest for a bit. (some recipes say let the batter rest for two hours, but I let mine rest for about ten minutes and was fine.)
2) Cook the mung daal with water till it is a mushy paste. Not soupy. If you have an instantpot, this takes about ten minutes. On the stove, about 20. Add in a bit of salt and white pepper.
3) Make the sauce by mixing those ingredients together. Adjust proportions to your own taste. Should be a nice mix of salty sweet. I like chili but it’s not necessary if you don’t want the heat.
4) Heat up 3 tbs olive oil and gently fry garlic on LOW heat till just golden brown. Turn off heat and toss in the green onion while the oil is still warm. Set aside.
5) Fry mushrooms, egg, or other toppings in oil w salt and pepper. Set aside.
6) Now that your toppings are all ready, time to steam the rice cakes! Bring steamer to boil, then turn down to medium.
6) Brush idli trays, muffin tin, or little bowls with oil. The batter would have separated so whisk it back together. Do this every time you use it. Put 1 tbs of the batter in each holder, then place trays in the steamer and cover with lid.
7) Cook 4 minutes for 1 tbs-sized portion of batter.
8) After 4 minutes, remove trays. Wait a minute for them to cool down, and with oiled spoon or spatula, gently remove and place on tray or plate.
9) You can now steam more, assembly-line style. The batter will make dozens, and one serving size is about 6 per plate. Or fill a large platter and serve party style.
10) Place a bit of the mung bean paste in the center of each cake. Then sprinkle the rest of the toppings over all the cakes. The garlic/green onion oil will help these stay moist if you are not eating right away. The dipping sauce can be served on the side as well, or poured over the top.

Chapatis

07 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in bread, chapati, flatbread, indian, kids, kids lunchbox ideas, quick and awesome, the basics

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chapatis

A soft Indian flatbread made with wheat flour, chapatis are very quick to make and pretty easy to master. As with most things, practice makes perfect so go easy on yourself if you’re trying these for the first time. Especially as I’m not putting measurements here. For chapatis, go by eye and texture and feel. After a few tries, you will be a master and making these will be no more daunting than making toast.

Chapatis

– Atta flour (finely ground wheat flour). *If you can’t find it, use whole wheat mixed with white flour. I find Trader Joe’s white wheat flour makes a soft chapati. If you decide to use American Whole Wheat flour, these will probably be stiff and dry rather than soft and pliable.
– salt
– oil
– water

1) Add flour into a bowl with just pinch of salt and mix in a bit of oil with your fingers. A good place to start would be about a cup of flour which should make about four to six or chapatis.
2) Gradually–DO NOT dump in–add in water, mixing with your hands and adding water as you go until you have a nice soft dough. It shouldn’t be so wet that it is like glue. But if it feels soft and yet tears a bit when you knead it, if it doesn’t stick together when you fold it over, then it is too dry. The texture you want is lovely softness, like new playdough. Watch this video to see Chetna do it like a boss.
3) After you have kneaded the dough for a couple minutes, cover with a drop of oil, some clingfilm and leave to sit for about ten minutes.
4) Pinch off a golf-ball sized bit of dough and roll into a sphere in your palms. This helps it keep an even circle shape when you roll out. Dust with flour and roll, turning as you go, to a thin circle about the size of a tortilla but ever so slightly thicker.
5) Get a cast iron skillet or non stick frying pan and heat to medium high. When hot, put the chapati on and cook for about 30 seconds, then flip. You will flip the dough again (and again) as it cooks to brown both sides and not let them burn.
6) When it begins to puff up, press a folded tea towel around the edges (not the center!) to push the hot steam toward the middle so that the chapati puffs up like a pita. When both sides golden brown, it is done. Only about a minute or two really. They cook fast.
7) Put cooked chapati on a plate and spread a bit of oil (if vegan), or ghee or salted butter on it. Continue with the rest of the dough until all chapatis cooked.
8) Keep chapatis warm on a plate covered with a tea towel. They will keep in the fridge for a few days and can be microwaved to warm up.

Serve with curry, sambal, chutney, daal of your choice.