Crispy pancakes with prawns and pork belly
- Prepare
- 1-2 hours
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 4
Crispy pancakes stuffed with pork belly, prawns and veg and then finished with a fresh herb salad – what could be better?
Ingredients
For the crispy pancakes
- 200g/7oz rice flour
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- pinch caster sugar
- 1½ tsp turmeric
- 240ml/8¼fl oz full fat coconut milk
- ½ tsp salt
- ground nut oil, for frying
For the prawns and pork belly
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 500g/1lb 2oz piece pork belly
- 300g/10½oz raw prawns, peeled
- 1 carrot, peeled and sliced into thin strips
- 1 red pepper, sliced into thin strips
- ½ cucumber, sliced into thin strips
- 4 spring onions, sliced into thin strips
- 150g/5½oz bean sprouts
- 20g/¾oz mint, leaves left whole
- 20g/¾oz Thai basil, leaves left whole
- 20g/¾oz coriander, leaves left whole
- 2 Little Gem lettuces, leaves separated
For the cucumber and chilli salad and dressing
- 3 limes, juice only
- 40ml/1fl½ oz fish sauce
- 1–2 tbsp palm sugar
- 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 3 Thai red chillies, chopped
- 1 cucumber, peeled into ribbons
- 1 red chilli, finely chopped
Method
To make the pancakes, mix both flours with the sugar, turmeric and salt until well combined. Whisk in the coconut milk and 240ml/8¼fl oz water to make a smooth batter. Chill for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, to make the prawns and pork belly, bring a saucepan of salted water to a simmer and add the pork belly, simmer for 40–50 minutes. Remove to iced water, then drain and slice thinly.
Heat the oil in a lidded pan and fry a handful of the pork and prawns, fry for 2–3 minutes. Ladle over some batter to make a thin coating. Flip over and cook for a further 2 minutes. Carefully remove from the pan, fold and place on a plate. Keep repeating this process until all the pork, prawn and pancake batter is used up.
To make the dipping sauce, place the lime juice, fish sauce, palm sugar, garlic and chillis into a pestle and mortar and grind to a dressing.
To make the the cucumber salad, place the ribbons of cucumber and fresh chopped chilli into the large bowl and pour over the lime dressing.
To serve, put the gem lettuce leaves onto a serving platter and top with the prepared carrot, red pepper, cucumber, spring onions and bean sprouts.
Serve the cucumber salad on the side along with the cooked pork and prawns and pancakes. Take to the table family service so people can fill them at the table with what they like.
