Recipe: Mini-Pancakes with Meatball sauce

It is a mini-pancake topped with a quail egg, served with pork meatballs and a sweet fish-sauce based dipping sauce. Unlike Banh Khot, Banh Can is not fried but cooked in batches over a low-heat charcoal on what looks like a giant cupcake tray made from clay with cute little lids over each cake. It’s not at all greasy but still crispy on the outside and soft and fragrant on the inside.

Video by: Helen

Chanel Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HelenRecipes

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice
• 1/2 cup cooked rice
• 500 g pork minced
• 1 tbsp shallots minced
• 1 tbsp garlic minced
• pepper
• 1 tsp chicken stock
• 2 tbsp Fish sauce
• spring onion chopped
• vegetable oil

Instructions

• Wash a cup of rice and then soak in water for at least 24 hours. Drain well and transfer to a blender and blend rice with 1/2 cup of cooked rice and 1 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 tsp salt.
  
• To make meatballs, season 500 g minced pork with 1 tbsp minced shallots, 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp chicken stock and 2 tbsp fish sauce. Then mix well and set aside for 15 mins.
  
• Grease a deep plate with some with some vegetable oil, then shape the seasoned minced meat into small balls and place onto the plate. Steam for about 15-20 mins until you see no pink water coming out when you poke the meatballs with a chopstick.
  
• Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a small saucepan and fry some minced garlic and shallots until fragrant. Then add a cup of water, 1 tsp chicken stock and transfer the meatballs into the saucepan. Add the juice, some chili flakes and bring to a boil.
  
• To make extra dipping sauce, dissolve a quarter cup of sugar in 1 cup of water, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp chicken stock. Stir well over medium heat until everything is well dissolved. Then add 1-2 tbsp fish sauce.
  
• Grease the metal mini-pancake pan with some vegetable oil. When the pan is really hot, stir up the batter and pour into the holes. Swirl the pan in a circular motion to distribute the batter evenly. Cover and cook until they turn crispy.
  
• To make scallion oil, heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a small pan and fry the white parts of the spring onion shredded until quite golden, then add the chopped green onion and turn off the heat.
  
• Flip the pancakes over for 1 minute to cook the top completely. Beat some eggs and add to the top of the cakes. To serve, add some dipping sauce to a small bowl and ladle the meatballs into it, together with some scallion oil. Sprinkle with some pepper and chili sauce.