This time last year I was in Michigan visiting my grandparents and other extended family. My favorite part of my visit is always my grandma’s cooking. She is seriously just the best cook. My favorite dish of hers is her banh cuon. It is a soft rice roll filled with ground pork and wood ear mushrooms. You eat it with some fresh veggies and a little bit of nuoc cham. It’s just magic in your mouth. Yummm. Since I’m not visiting her this year, I decided to try my hand at making banh cuon for myself.
The Batter
The first step to making banh cuon is mixing together the batter. Combine tapioca flour, rice flour, vegetable oil, and room temperature water. Mix together and let it sit for 30 minutes. If you don’t have time to make the batter, you can also get the dry ingredients premixed at Asian grocery stores! I also found it on Amazon. My mom actually uses this instead of mixing all the dry ingredients from scratch because she’s lazy lol. Both methods will yield the same result.
Making the filling
The filling is made of ground pork, onions, and wood ear mushrooms. Marinate the pork in sugar, pepper, and fish sauce and cook it over medium high heat with the onions and mushrooms. If you get lazy, you can also just eat the filling by itself. Oftentimes, I have filling left over so I just throw it over some rice and call it a day.
Wood Ear Mushrooms
This is the first recipe where I worked with wood ear mushrooms. I didn’t really know where to find them here in SF, so my mom gave me some when I visited for Thanksgiving. These mushrooms can usually be found in Asian grocery stores or on Amazon. (Amazon seriously has everything lol) You can either buy them whole or shredded. For this recipe, I would recommend buying them shredded since you’re putting them into a small rice roll. In addition, since they’re shredded that means less cutting.
Putting it all together
This is probably the most difficult part of the recipe. It’s important that the rice roll has a thin skin. Before you start cooking, make sure you have everything ready and accessible next to your stove. This would be your batter, your filling, and a flat surface to make you rolls.
Heat a 8 inch circular nonstick pan over low heat. Once hot, pour a thin layer of the batter into the pan. You should use about 1/8 cup per roll. Cover the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes. The skin should be so thin and transparent you can see the pan through it. Once done, quickly flip the pan upside down on top of the flat surface so the skin comes out all in one go. This may take some practice. The first time I did this, some of the edges stuck together so I tossed it. Truth be told, I tossed more than a few skins.
Let the skin cool for 10 seconds so you don’t burn your fingers rolling. While it cools, add new batter to the pan. As the second skin is cooking, add about 1 tablespoon of the filling to the first skin and roll it like an egg roll. Repeat this process until you use up all the batter. As you do it, you will get into a rhythm, and it will get easier. I took some step-by-step pictures of my rolling process below.
Eating Banh Cuon
Banh cuon is eaten with fresh veggies like cucumbers, mint, cha lua, fried shallots, and nuoc cham. You can customize your toppings however you like. After making this batch, I brought some over to a friend’s place, and she wasn’t a huge fan of the cha lua. So she ate just the banh cuon with the cucumbers. I personally LOVE the cha lua, so I ate her portion too lol.
Banh Cuon
Equipment
Ingredients
Batter
- 1 cup rice flour
- 1 cup tapioca flour
- 4 cups room temperature water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp salt
Filling
- ½ cup wood ear mushrooms
- 1 lb ground pork
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp pepper
- ½ yellow onion minced
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 stalks green onions minced
- 1 cha lua thinly sliced
- 2 cucumber thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp fried shallots
- 12 mint leaves
- Vietnamese dipping sauce search "nuoc cham" for recipe
Instructions
- Making the batter: Combine rice flour, tapioca flour, room temperature water, vegetable oil, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well and let it rest for 30 minutes.
- While the batter is resting, soak the wood ear mushrooms in a bowl of water for 20 minutes. Once done soaking, wring out as much water as possible. Coarsely chop them into small pieces and set aside.
- Combine the pork, fish sauce, sugar, and pepper. Marinate for 10 minutes and set aside.
- Making the filling: In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add in the onions and cook for 30 seconds. Add in the ground pork and wood ear mushrooms and cook until well done (about 2-3 minutes). Set filling aside.
- Once the batter has rested for 30 minutes, the water should have separated from the rice flour mixture below. Pour out the water on the top layer into a liquid measuring cup. Note how much water is in the measuring cup and throw away that water. Fill the measuring cup with the same amount of water that was poured out. Pour that water into the rice batter and mix. Set aside.
- You are now ready to make your banh cuon. Make sure you're ready with your batter and filling near your pan. Use a circular 8 inch nonstick pan. Heat over low heat. Spoon 1/8 cup of batter into a thin layer covering the bottom of the pan. Cover it with the lid and let it cook for 1-2 minutes. Once done, flip the pan upside down onto a flat surface so the skin comes out in one piece. This may take some practice. Let the first skin rest for ~10 seconds so you don't burn your fingers. Fill the skin with 1 tablespoon of the filling and roll it up like an egg roll.
- Repeat this process until all the batter is used up.
- Making scallion oil: Heat 1/2 cup of vegetable oil over medium high heat until it starts to sizzle (1-2 minutes). Pour hot oil over green onions in a small bowl.
- Preparing your banh cuon plate: Add some banh cuon to a plate. Spoon some scallion oil over the top. Top with cha lua, mint, fried shallots, and cucumbers. Sprinkle nuoc cham over the top of everything and enjoy!
How fab, I looooove these but not many Vietnamese restaurants in my area prepare them. Now I found your recipe, this is not longer a problem. Delicious and fun to prepare
Hi Sandra. Thank you so much for the kind words! I hope you enjoyed the recipe.
Have you tried freezing leftovers? I’m thinking of making a double-batch so I can save some for later. Looks delicious!
Yes you can freeze them! They can keep up to a week in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer. Just thaw them and reheat them in the microwave when you’re ready to eat them.
Hi. why does the cup of water need to be removed from the batter and added back in again?
Hi Teresa. To be honest, I am not sure. That’s just how my grandma does it, and I love her Banh Cuon. 🙂 If I had to guess, I would assume it’s to get rid of some of the starchiness that rice has. Similar to how you rinse rice before you cook it.
We usually use pre-combined pkg. But today tried this recipe. The batter is far to thick. We continued to add water and a touch more oil to get it to the right consistency.
Hi Shel. I’m sorry this recipe didn’t work for you! Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you if you decide to try it next time!
The best recipe I have found thus far!! Thank you <3 <3
Thank you so much for making my recipes!! I’m so glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Great recipe. It comes perfect for us. We don’t have to depend on pre-mix package any more👍
Thank you so much for this recipe! I was always afraid to make this at home and it not only turned out delicious but was very easy!
Thank you for making it!
Don’t use boiling water & add more water + oil. Not sure how everyone’s been able to add boiling water to tapioca starch without it immediately cooking and creating lumps. Such a mess and have since found most recipes don’t require this.
Hi Kim. Thank you for the feedback. Yes, if the water is too hot, the tapioca starch will clump which is why I recommend a combination of room temperature and boiling water. If you want, you can definitely use all warm water.
Hi, do you think I could replace the tapioca flour with something else? Like corn flour maybe? Thanks
Hmmm good question! I have not tested it but I did a bit of research and it looks like you can substitute 1 tablespoon of corn starch for every 2 tablespoons of tapioca starch. I am not sure how it will affect the texture though. Let me know if you try it!
I do like a lot your style of writing. I am a professional Chef with a great interest in Asian Cuisine and i do find your articles inspiring. Wanted to know what you think about this, what are the main differences between Banh Cuon and Thai Rice Paper Rolls? they look very similar to me. Curious to hear what u think. In the meanwhile… keep the great writing going!
Hi Eli. I am not sure what Thai Rice Paper Rolls are but I assume it is a spring roll which is made with dry rice paper and Banh Cuon is made with a soft skin made of rice. Traditional banh cuon also has different fillings than spring rolls.
Your recipe is my goto for bánh cuốn. The consistency comes out just like the restaurants and the filling is right to taste. Before I found your recipe, I would have to wait for special occasions to order. Now, I just make them when we have the craving. My kids love them. Thank you. 😊
Hi May. Thank you so much!! I’m so glad you enjoy the recipe!
Can you reheat these if you don’t have a microwave?
Yes you can. You basically need to steam it so you don’t dry it out. What I would do is get a pot and fill it with 2-3 cups of water. Place a cup in the center of the pot. Bring the water to a boil. Once boiling, put your banh cuon on top of a plate and put the plate on the cup. Cover the pot and let the banh cuon steam for 5-10 minutes. This is a way to steam your banh cuon without a steamer.
The batter comes out TOOOOOO thick. It was more like a burrito than banh cuon. Banh cuon is suppose to be paper thin, this was a disappointment and waste of ingredients.
I’m sorry the recipe didn’t work for you. Thank you for trying the recipe.