I am super excited to share this recipe with you! I had never heard of this concoction, which is essentially a street food in Vietnam. But during our trip to California last month I had the chance to try it in a restaurant in Los Gatos and could not wait to make it at home. Rice paper instead of pizza dough. Scrambled egg instead of tomato sauce. Seafood almost always the topping, although the one I had used pork belly instead.
VIETNAMESE “PIZZA”
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)
for each individual pizza:
2 rice paper round sheets
2 tablespoons olive oil
fresh herbs of your choice (I used basil and oregano)
1 egg, scrambled (it is easier to scramble 2)
salt and pepper to taste
cooked shrimp, 4 to 5 per serving
Thai sweet red chili sauce (store-bought is fine)
roasted salted peanuts
Make a flavored olive oil sauteeing the chopped herbs with the oil until fragrant. Reserve. Cook the shrimp by any method you like. I just used a little butter, salt, pepper and a squirt of lemon juice. Reserve. Scramble the egg with salt and pepper, and if you have a plastic squirt bottle, pour the egg mixture inside. Reserve.
Heat a griddle pan on medium heat. Grab two sheets of rice paper and spray water all over the surface of one of them, add the other on top. Quickly add the double paper to the pan, and carefully using a couple of spatulas or wooden spoons, make the heat stick them together. Once they start to join and the bottom is getting opaque, flip the papers and start heating the other side, always working on the surface to make them glue well. Once the paper starts getting white, brush a bit of the flavored oil on the surface, then pour the scrambled egg, a small amount will do. Push it to the edge with the back of a spoon, but don’t let it fall off on the pan. Cook until the egg starts to set, then quickly add the shrimp. Cook until the shrimp is warmed through. Sprinkle a good amount of sweet chili sauce all over, then the crushed peanuts, and serve. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Best way to serve it is to cut in wedges with scissors!
ENJOY!
PDF coming soon, stay tuned
Comments: This was such a delicious meal, I think I still need to practice the preparation, particularly handling the double rice paper, but overall I am super happy with the outcome. It is quite unusual, I know we’ll be enjoying it often with different toppings. If you’ve never heard of BANH TRANG NUONG, give this concoction a try, chances are you will fall in love with it also.
You can see a video of the preparation here, but I should warn you things did not go as smoothly for yours truly. Maybe different brands of rice paper behave differently. At any rate, it is worth any trepidation to get to the finish line…
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Bewitching Kitchen 
*laugh* You know me well enough, Sally, to realize I would go straight to dear Mr Google to ask whether this was the brainchild of an inventive American chef or really and truly came from Vietnam, !!! Well I was the ignorant one – it seems this Vietnamese fusion food has been popular . . . and I find it interesting – for about a decade ! Am learning thanks to you !!! Have to laugh as Wikipedia also calls it a Vietnamese quesadilla !!! Whichever . . . it does sound interesting . . . for me probably more so than a pizza and it will most certainly be tried – rice paper rolls are never far from my kitchen !!!!
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yes it is apparently not common in restaurants, and just sold in the streets – pretty cool. If you decide to give it a try, definitely look at the video – he goes to the extent of making the chili sauce from scratch, but for the amount needed in the recipe, I thought it was a bit much for me – store bough worked perfectly alright
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This recipe sounds so interesting! I can’t wait to try it and thanks for the video link. I hope you don’t mind if I point out that the first paragraph of the recipe is a bit confusing…
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I just decided to simplify the preps of the toppings – if you look at the video it will be easier to understand. You essentially heat olive oil with herbs just to flavor the oil – let it cool a bit and use it on the paper. Cook the toppings of your choice whatever way you like, because once they go on the paper it all happens so quickly there is no chance to cook it from raw – they just get heat up for literally a couple of minutes. You don’t want the rice paper to burn. And the egg you just whisk and place in a squirt bottle as the video suggests to make it easier to pour on the paper – but you can also just spoon it. It is worth watching the video because dealing with the rice paper is tricky and he shows it well.
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Sorry to be so persistent but I know how important accuracy is. This part:
“plastic squirt bottle, pour it inside.shrimp by any method you like. I just used a little butter, salt, pepper and a squirt of lemon juice. Reserve. “
It just needs a bit of editing to tidy the writing.
With thanks for all the culinary adventures you share!
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OH I DID NOT NOTICE THE DUPLICATION – I think it happened when I changed a typo in “squirt” – darn it – will fix that and remove the PDF file – when I have time I willl make a new PDF
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I recently saw this in Beryl Shereshewsky YouTube channel and have been making it ever since! So yummy!
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very interesting recipe indeed, I cannot believe I had never heard about it! So glad I found out how to do it, although I do need to practice more
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Does the rice paper get crisp, like a plate or pizza dough? Such an interesting dish. I have to try it.
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Yes, it is supposed to get really crispy – I am not sure I hit it right, it was my first time, and it is a little difficult to judge what is going on – but I think it is a fun little recipe to try and perfect… 😉
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