Khanom Bueang

Name: Khanom Bueang
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 20
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 120 g Rice flour; 60 g Mung bean flour; 30 g Tapioca starch; 260 ml Limewater (nam bpoon sai), or plain water; 1 Egg yolk; 1 tbsp Sugar, for the batter; 3 Egg whites, at room temperature; 150 g Caster sugar, for the cream; 1 tsp Lime juice; 150 g Fresh grated coconut; 80 g Foi thong (sweet egg strands), if you have them; 80 g Dried shrimp, pounded fine; 2 Spring onion, finely sliced

Thin crisp shells the size of a palm, spread with a whipped meringue cream and folded over shredded coconut or salty dried shrimp — the sweet and the savoury sold from the same tray, and you take both.

Source

Recipe by Bangkok street stalls · 🏺 Traditional · Street and shophouse cooking of Bangkok, much of it shaped by Chinese-Thai families

Thailand · crisp filled crêpes — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms khanom bueang, known in English as Thai crêpes or crispy pancakes, as an ancient Thai snack and a popular form of street food in Thailand. The flour ratio, the meringue method, the crisp-in-the-pan test and the limewater note are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

👉 ASEAN Adventures World Cuisine ThaiFood So Good

⏱ 70 min🍽 20 servings🔥 90 kcal🇹🇭 Thailand

VegetarianGluten-freeDairy-free

Steps

Whisk the three flours with the limewater, egg yolk and 1 tbsp sugar into a batter as thin as single cream. Rest 30 minutes and strain.
Whip the egg whites with the lime juice to soft peaks, then add the caster sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is thick and glossy.
💡 Sugar a spoonful at a time, never all at once. Dumped in, it deflates the whites and the cream weeps into the shell within a minute of being spread.
Heat a flat non-stick pan or crêpe pan to a low-medium heat — a drop of batter should set without sizzling loudly.
Spread 1 tbsp of batter into a 10 cm circle with the back of the spoon and cook 2 minutes until the edges lift and the shell is dry and crisp.
💡 The shell must go crisp IN the pan, not after. If it is still bendy when you lift it, the pan is too cool — a soft shell will never crisp up later.
Spread a spoonful of meringue over the shell while it is still in the pan, top one half with coconut and foi thong, and fold it over.
For the savoury ones, top with the pounded dried shrimp and spring onion instead, and fold the same way.
Lift out and cool on a rack. Eat the same day.

💡 Tips

Old Thai households made these for ceremonies and the shells were once much larger. The palm-sized ones sold in Bangkok markets today are the modern street version of a court sweet.
The savoury shrimp one confuses first-timers because the shell and cream are sweet. That contrast is the dish — order one of each and eat the salty one second.