the trouble with winging it

my mom is an amazing cook. she's of the school that cooks by taste rather than careful measurement or guidance of a recipe. compounded by the fact that i have limited opportunities to cook with my mom, this has made learning how to make the comfort foods i've grown up with extremely challenging. on my outstanding list of dishes to master is the vietnamese crepes, or banh xeo.

having invited kev and theng over for dinner, it seemed like as good of an opportunity as any to make a go of it. by 7ish, i had everything prepped- the shrimp & beef for rice paper rolls were cleaned, cut, and seasoned and the fixings were cleaned and drying. for the crepes- the ground pork/shrimp fillings were stir fried and the batter was mixed.

now it was show time. i carefully followed the recipe instructions- reheating the pork & shrimp mixture in the pan and moving it to one side of the pan before pouring the batter in. i let the mixture heat up and waited for the edges to pull away from the pan. i tried to loosen the edges with the tip of the spatula but the batter remained gooey and thick. this made matters worse and the crepe quickly became an ugly heap of beansprouts meat, and batter which i transferred with much difficulty onto a cookie sheet covered in foil.

deep breath. ok, that's just one wasted crepe.

i re-read the instructions and began again.

again. huge ugly pile. the batter was not getting stiff enough to fold over into a crepe.

now i was cursing. deciding that the recipe was useless, i made a third attempt and just winged it. i watered down the batter a little. lowered the heat. added a little extra oil to the pan and started again. i poured a more generous portion of batter and let it harden in the pan. finally! the edges pulled away and the batter solidified enough so i could lift and fold the crepe in half. transferring the crepe onto the cookie sheet was much easier and i had successfully made one crepe.

unfortunately, i had used up most of the batter in the process and i was out of coconut milk. the boy sensing my frustration, suggested soy milk instead. i looked at him doubtfully but figured (1) i couldn't lose anything and (2) it was definately thicker than water. luckily, the last crepe turned out well and i had four presentable crepes to serve!!! the rest of the night was a piece of cake.