Mango, Maple Pancakes

Just a quick pancake post inspired by one of those never going to ripen supermarket mangoes.

Have you ever felt that buying mangoes in the supermarket is like playing a one arm bandit machine. The eager anticipation that the £1 you spend will at least return itself with a portion of edible mango but experience tells you otherwise. None the less you are drawn on by the once in a blue moon experience where the £1 mango is so good you could have plucked it straight from a tree in Brazil.  Well I have a dud sitting in my fruit bowl that after ten days in a warm kitchen is still no where near ripe.

So in the absence of a desire to make chutney this mango needs a bit of a saute to soften it up and as today is pancake day I have the perfect excuse to get out the frying pans. This inevitably means having to spend at least twenty minutes re-seasoning my cast iron crepe pan that has not been out of the cupboard since last year but it was lovingly brought back from Paris many years ago and I cannot part with it now.

My pancake batter recipe is rather like myself, vague and a tad unreliable, but it basically goes 1 egg, 1 tbs of plain flour and enough milk to get a thin cream consistency, plus a pinch of salt. Whisk like crazy in a jug so that you do not get any lumps, adding the milk gradually. Try not to add too much milk because adding additional flour to a too thin batter is most likely to get very lumpy and you do not want to be frying with a hot pan in a bad mood.

So batter ready, mango hacked into chunks, pans on, serving plates and forks at standby .

I sauteed the mango chunks in a good tablespoon of maple butter which gives them just enough sweetness and the butter will help to caramelise the fruit around the edges as it softens. Try to be brave and cook the mango as you make the pancakes because you want them both ready together if you can.

Ideally make the pancakes thin and lacy, easier said than done. Flip over as soon as you see all the bubbles popping to the top of the surface and cook until just done. Keep turning your mango while you are doing the pancakes, you are aiming for light golden egdes to the pieces of mango.

As soon as you have enough pancakes ready and the mango is soft and golden quickly serve up and eat without interruption, it won't take long, everything can wait. Add cream , maple syrup, or whatever you like!