Bánh Bột Lọc-VIETNAMESE CLEAR Dumplings
Today it’s all about Vietnamese cuisine and the beautiful dish Bánh Bột Lọc. These vietnames clear dumplings are made of tapioca starch and a savoury filling, drizzled with green onion oil and a homemade dipping sauce. Just unbelievably beautiful and delicious! I tried to veganize this dish by staying as true to the original recipe as possible and hope that you’re going to enjoy it.
As already mentioned these dumplings are made with tapioca starch and I have to admit that I have never actively cooked anything using only tapioca starch before. Sure I have used tapioca starch in the kitchen before as a thickener for sauces or to make vegan ‘cheese’ but I didn’t really know what else to do with it. That’s why I was so fascinated to read up on the way tapioca starch is used in many cuisines and how it can be turned into many exciting dishes, including these very beautiful clear dumplings, that today's recipe post is all about.
Traditionally, Bánh Bột Lọc are filled with shrimp and pork. Of course, we won’t be doing that here. But if you want, you can check out your favourite Asian supermarket and see if they sell shrimp substitutes, there are some that come pretty close to the real deal, you could use these as a filling for the dumplings. You can pretty much vary the filling of these dumplings as you like: mung beans, mushrooms, vegan minced meat, the mentioned vegan shrimp, everything is possible and tastes super delicious.
Furthermore, in the original, the filling is dyed orange with annatto oil, so that the dumplings are a real eye-catcher after cooking, because the orange filling shines through the transparent wrapper. Annatto is a spice derived from the achiote tree and is used in Vietnamese and some other national cuisines as well as in the food industry as a powerful food coloring. I personally love to discover and try out new spices and ingredients like annatto for instance. That's why I went to my local Asian market and got myself some annatto seeds. The annatto oil is very easy to make at home, for this recipe you simply heat 1 tablespoon of annatto seeds with 3-4 tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan until the oil has turned dark orange, then sift the annatto seeds and the oil is ready to be added into your filling.
You absolutely don’t have to get the annatto seeds and make the oil, the recipe works fine without it, but I think it is important to be aware of the traditional preparation of a dish in order to cook it, adapt it or whatever. Plus it is quite exciting to get to know new ingredients and new ways of preparation and to expand ones culinary know-how more and more.
Another very important ingredient in Vietnamese cuisine is fish sauce. It is used in almost all the dishes and is a key ingredient in Vietnamese cuisine. Vegan fish sauce is still a pretty new thing and there aren’t as many options out there and the exact fish sauce taste can't be recreated in vegan alternatives (at least so far) however the basic idea of fish sauce, namely to give the respective dish an additional umami flavour works quite well with a vegan NOfishsauce. You can get NOfishsauce in any well-stocked supermarket or organic food store OR if you are willing to experiment, you can make it at home by yourself with this simple recipe.
To make the NOfishsauce at home you need:
1 litter of water
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 onion, roughly chopped
10 dried shiitake mushrooms
2 nori sheets
60ml soy sauce
2 ½ tbsp salt
2 tsp rice vinegar
½ tsp rice flour (if you don’t have it at home, you can just skip it)
1) Put all ingredients in a pot. Bring to a boil once, turn down the heat and let simmer until the liquid has reduced by half.
2) Put a lid on the pot. Let cool at room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.
3) The next morning strain the sauce, you can pick out the mushrooms and use them for another dish. Fill the sauce into sterile bottles, it will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
The fish sauce also acts as a sauce for dipping or pouring in this dish. The NOfish-dipping-sauce is boiled with a little sugar, water and white vinegar to a sauce, before serving finely chopped garlic, chili flakes or fresh chilies are added to the sauce. And Tada! The perfect dipping sauce is ready.
These dumplings are very special and may not be to the likes of everyone, as the texture of the tapioca dough is very peculiar and somewhat slippery. But I can really only recommend it to everyone to at least try them, this is definitely something that you most likely have never tasted before, and on top of that it’s just incredibly delicious. So there's really not much more to say except let's go! Check out the recipe below, give it a try and feel free to let us know what you think of it.
Ingredients for the dough:
200g tapioca flour/starch
175g boiling water
For the filling
1EL chili oil or sesame oil for frying
300g meat and/or shrimp substitute of your choice (or mushrooms, beans, lentils...), finely chopped
2 Thai chilies, finely chopped
2cm grated ginger
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2EL NOfishsauce
2EL soy sauce
1EL agave syrup or sugar
1 handful coriander, finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
For the spring onion oil
1tbsp oil
2 spring onions, chopped
a little salt
For the NOfish-dipping-sauce
35g NOfishsauce
40g sugar
70g water
23g white vinegar
1) For the spring onion oil, put the spring onion, oil and salt in a bowl and microwave for 30-60 seconds. If you don't have a microwave, heat the onions and oil in a pot for 30 seconds. Set aside.
2) For the NOfish-dipping-sauce, place all ingredients in a saucepan and heat it up. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Once the liquid starts to boil, remove from heat and let cool.
3) In a frying pan, heat 1tbsp oil. Sauté chilies with garlic and ginger. Add meat/shrimp substitute/mushrooms/beans and sauté everything for 1-2 minutes. Season with NOfishsauce, soy sauce, salt, agave syrup and black pepper. Remove from heat, mix in cilantro and lemon juice. Allow to cool.
4) For the dough mix flour and boiling water in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Then pour onto the working surface and knead well, if necessary add some additional tapioca flour if the dough is too sticky.
5) Now cut off a small piece of the dough and shape into a flat circle (Ø5cm) with your fingers. Put about ½ tsp of the filling inside and seal the dumpling shut. Continue like this until the dough is used up.
6) Put on a large pot of water, add ½ tsp salt and 2EL regular oil. Bring the water to a boil. Then reduce the heat a little. Add dumplings (about 10 at once) to the water and cook until they float to the surface (1-3 minutes).
7) While the dumplings are cooking, prepare a large bowl of cold water. Remove the finished dumplings from the pot and place them in the cold water. Let them cool there briefly, then arrange them on a lightly oiled plate. Now garnish the whole thing with fried onions, the spring onion oil and chopped chilies and pour the NOfish-dipping sauce over it and enjoy!
Bánh Bột Lọc-VIETNAMESE CLEAR Dumplings
Zutaten
- 200g tapioca flour/starch
- 175g boiling water
- 1EL chili oil or sesame oil for frying
- 300g meat and/or shrimp substitute of your choice (or mushrooms, beans, lentils...), finely chopped
- 2 Thai chilies, finely chopped
- 2cm grated ginger
- 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2EL NOfishsauce
- 2EL soy sauce
- 1EL agave syrup or sugar
- 1 handful coriander, finely chopped
- juice of 1 lime
- 1tbsp oil
- 2 spring onions, chopped
- a little salt
- 35g NOfishsauce
- 40g sugar
- 70g water
- 23g white vinegar
Zubereitung
- For the spring onion oil, put the spring onion, oil and salt in a bowl and microwave for 30-60 seconds. If you don't have a microwave, heat the onions and oil in a pot for 30 seconds. Set aside.
- For the NOfish-dipping-sauce, place all ingredients in a saucepan and heat it up. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Once the liquid starts to boil, remove from heat and let cool.
- In a frying pan, heat 1tbsp oil. Sauté chilies with garlic and ginger. Add meat/shrimp substitute/mushrooms/beans and sauté everything for 1-2 minutes. Season with NOfishsauce, soy sauce, salt, agave syrup and black pepper. Remove from heat, mix in cilantro and lemon juice. Allow to cool.
- For the dough mix flour and boiling water in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Then pour onto the working surface and knead well, if necessary add some additional tapioca flour if the dough is too sticky.
- Now cut off a small piece of the dough and shape into a flat circle (Ø5cm) with your fingers. Put about ½ tsp of the filling inside and seal the dumpling shut. Continue like this until the dough is used up.
- Put on a large pot of water, add ½ tsp salt and 2EL regular oil. Bring the water to a boil. Then reduce the heat a little. Add dumplings (about 10 at once) to the water and cook until they float to the surface (1-3 minutes).
- While the dumplings are cooking, prepare a large bowl of cold water. Remove the finished dumplings from the pot and place them in the cold water. Let them cool there briefly, then arrange them on a lightly oiled plate. Now garnish the whole thing with fried onions, the spring onion oil and chopped chilies and pour the NOfish-dipping sauce over it and enjoy!
Hi, we’re Marie and Michael, two foodies living and studying in Vienna!
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