Recipe: Bánh Cống

A simple Vietnamese dish that is served as a snack (well at least to me it was - and still is). It's fried with your choice of dipping sauce or none at all. The process of these dough-y fritters are extremely simple!

Ingredients:
- Deep Fried Shrimp Cake batter
- any sorts of beans
- shrimps
- water
- oil (to fry)

Three simple ingredients to make the final product, and also water but I know we all know what water is.

I used this large metal soup spoon to get the rounded shape of the Bánh Cống. You can find this is any Asian kitchen gadget store.

After prepping everything, it's time to make the mixture. The package on the batter tells you to mix 12 oz of flour with 1 3/4 cups of water. I usually eyeball it and mix it to a light gooey consistency. It also tells you to wait 30 minutes for it to rise but you don't need to!

Get your pot of oil ready. I fill the pot just so the oil can cover my "metal spoon," fries better that way!

In goes the action!
What you want to do first is take the "metal spoon" and fill it with a spoon of the mixture, then put the beans in, top it off with a shrimp, and take another spoonful of mixture to cover the shrimp. When that assembly is done, place the "metal spoon" into the pot. It should take no longer than 3-5 minutes for each one. When its golden brown remove it from the oil!

I love these as snacks and it's so easy and simple to make. Who knew that 3-4 ingredients can make something so mouthwatering and complicating-looking.

I love eating mines with fish sauce.
Next up, how to make - fish sauce!