vice-munchies: shop like a vietnamese chef: cooking crispy pancakes, lemongrass chicken & dumplings

Have you ever passed by a Vietnamese food shop and thought, I wish I knew what to buy there? Do you long to know how to make Vietnamese pancakes as deliciously crispy as they are in restaurants? Do you understand how much durian fruit costs? And do you really know morning glory when you see it? Come shop around with us and discover the secrets of Vietnamese cuisine. In this episode, well take you on a tour of a Vietnamese grocery store in East London and show you how to cook crispy pancakes, lemongrass chicken, and dumplings. 00:00 Introduction 00:40 What to Buy at a Vietnamese Shop 04:38 Vietnamese Ingredients 05:10 Sizzling Pancake (Bnh Xo) 07:24 Lemongrass Chicken (G Nng) 09:13 Dumplings (Bnh Bt Loc) FULL RECIPE: VIETNAMESE CRISPY PANCAKES Crepe batter 150g rice flour 75g corn flour 25g tapioca 200ml coconut milk 400ml water Turmeric Filling: 1 spring onion Beansprouts Black tiger prawns or king prawns peeled, deshelled & deveined Oil Seasoning Pickled carrot with coriander Mix grated carrot with coriander seeds, some vinegar and sugar Nuc Chm sauce Combine the following: 100ml fish sauce 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar 3 tbsp lime juice 2 fresh red chillies chopped (no seeds) 1 garlic clove, crushed 1 tbsp sugar Method -Whisk crepe ingredients in a bowl until thin butter consistency (add less water initially and then more if needed) -Heat up the pan to medium-high. -Add oil and a handful of spring onions to flavour the oil. -Immediately add prawns and cook for 30 seconds, then flip them. -Add a handful of beansprouts and pour in batter, leaving no gaps. -Cover the pan with a lid and steam for about 2 minutes. -Remove the lid, prizing any stuck batter from the pan with a spatula. -Add more beansprouts for texture. -Add oil around the edges on a high heat until crispy. -Fold over, plate up and serve with lettuce cups, cucumber, Vietnamese herbs, pickled carrots and plenty of nuc chm dipping sauce. LEMONGRASS CHICKEN Marinade (for 1kg chicken thighs) Combine in a pestle and mortar or powerful blender: 2 sticks lemongrass, tops cut off, crushed and chopped 1 brown onion 5 cloves garlic 20g salt 30g sugar 2 tsp turmeric 1 tsp black pepper Enough sunflower oil to make a paste Peanut Butter Sauce Mix nuc chm sauce (see recipe) with peanut butter to a dipping consistency thinner to mix with noodles or thicker for spring rolls or meat. Method -Leave the chicken thighs in the marinade for as long as possible (ideally, at least 24 hours) and then heat in a pan, oven, air fryeror on a charcoal barbecuetill cooked. -Serve with noodles and fish sauce or in a baguette with Vietnamese herbs, cucumber and pickled carrots. PRAWN, PORK & CHINESE CHIVE DUMPLING Ingredients: Wonton wrappers (the fresh ones are best) find them in a Vietnamese shop Filling, combine: 150g prawns, hand-minced 150g pork minced 30g Chinese chives 1 shallot 2 tbsp fish sauce 1 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp black sesame oil 1 tsp black pepper Dumpling Sauce 75ml light soy sauce 25ml red wine vinegar 1 tsp black sesame oil Ginger, sliced Method (for around 14 large dumplings) -Put a small amount of flour into a bowl of water. Dip your fingers in here regularly and it will stop the other ingredients from sticking to your fingers. -Place the dumpling wrapper on a chopping board in front of you in a diamond shape. Add the filling to the centre of the diamond. Wet the top two edges of the diamond, then fold the two lower edges up, over the filling, so that they land in line with the two top edges to form what looks like a bulky, tasty triangle. -Press the dry bottom edges onto the wet top edges so that they stick together, preventing the filling from escaping and air pockets from forming. (If there are air pockets in your dumpling, it will burst open during the cooking process.) -Take one end of the longest side of the triangleits baseand fold it in. Wet the new edge that has been created, then fold across the opposite side, sticking it to the wet edge so that the dumpling now looks similar to the Popes hat. -Now, either cook in a traditional steameror fry the bottom of the dumplings in a pan with oil on a medium-to-low heat, crisping the base. Once browned, turn the heat of the pan up high. -Carefully add water to the hot pan, add a lid to contain the steam, and wait till fully cooked. Serve with dumpling sauce. Subscribe to MUNCHIES here: Follow MUNCHIES here: TikTok: Facebook: Instagram: Twitter: Threads: More videos from the VICE network: #munchies #vietnamese #foodie