Banh Beo Hue

Ingredients

• 200 g rice flour
• 50 g tapioca starch
• 600 ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp neutral oil, plus extra for greasing
• 100 g dried shrimp
• 100 g pork back fat or fatty pork belly, cut into 5 mm cubes
• 4 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp neutral oil for the scallion oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 60 ml fish sauce
• 60 g sugar for the dipping sauce
• 180 ml warm water for the dipping sauce
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 red chillies, finely chopped

Before you cook

• Whisk the rice flour, tapioca starch, salt and 600 ml of water together in a bowl until smooth.
• Stir in 1 tbsp of oil and rest the batter at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Soak the dried shrimp in warm water for 20 minutes, then drain and squeeze them dry.
• Cut the pork fat into 5 mm cubes.
• Lightly oil 24 to 30 small shallow saucers or a set of mini tart moulds.

Steps

1. Put the drained dried shrimp in a food processor and pulse them to a fluffy floss.
2. Toast the shrimp floss in a dry frying pan over low heat for 8 minutes, stirring often, until it is dry and light.
3. Tip the floss into a bowl and wipe out the pan.
4. Fry the cubed pork fat in the same pan over medium-low heat for 12 minutes until the cubes are small, golden and crisp.
5. Lift the crackling out with a slotted spoon and drain it on paper.
6. Heat the 3 tbsp of oil in a small pan until it shimmers, then pour it over the sliced spring onion in a heatproof bowl and stir in the 1 tsp of sugar.
7. Stir the 60 g of sugar into the 180 ml of warm water until it dissolves.
8. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, chopped garlic and chilli to make the dipping sauce, then set it aside.
9. Set up a large steamer and bring the water to a hard boil.
10. Arrange as many oiled saucers as will fit in the steamer and heat them for 2 minutes.
11. Stir the rested batter well, since the flour will have settled.
12. Pour about 1 tbsp of batter into each hot saucer, filling them no more than 4 mm deep.
13. Cover the steamer and steam for 4 minutes until each cake turns translucent white and sets a dimple in the centre.
14. Lift the saucers out and repeat with the remaining batter until it is all used.
15. Spoon a little scallion oil into the dimple of each cake.
16. Sprinkle a generous pinch of shrimp floss over every cake.
17. Top each one with two or three cubes of crisp pork crackling.
18. Serve the cakes in their saucers with the dipping sauce, and eat them by spooning a little sauce into each and sliding the cake out.