Yum Cha Style Mango Pancakes

Mango season has hit quite early this year- although they're not exactly at their best yet, there's always a strong scent of mangoes whenever I venture into a fruit shop. I find this a little weird as I always associate mangoes with December. When I was younger, we used to take boxes of mangoes to Hong Kong for our relatives when we went there just before christmas. Back then, mangoes were at their best just before christmas and we always managed to bring some large, ripe mangoes. But it seems that the mango season is appearing earlier and earlier each year- last year, we only managed to bring a box of small end of season mangoes!

Although I prefer eating mangoes as they are, rather than using them for desserts (as I do with most fruits), my next favourite way to eat mango is in mango pancakes. Yup, the bright yellow ones they wheel around in the dessert trolley at yum cha, always covered tightly in cling wrap with water droplets hanging off the plastic.

I had these for the first time at a yum cha restaurant about 3 years ago, instantly fell in love with them and then realised how simple they were- after all, they're just a simple mixture of mangoes and whipped cream wrapped in a yellow pancake. But that never stopped me from ordering them everytime I spotted one at a restaurant. Even when it's in the middle of winter, and you know that they're using canned mangoes....



So I finally got around to making this yesterday, after seeing the two mangoes which I'd reserved (my sister used the others for mango pudding) starting to rot. I've never been able to find a mango pancake recipe on the internet, one of the resons I've been putting it off for so long, despite my love for it)so I decided to use a crepe recipe as I thought it'd be similar to the pancake I've eaten at yum cha (never mind the fact that I've never actually eaten a crepe before.....), tint it yellow and chuck some whipped cream and mango in there =D And you know what?? It worked!!

I accidently made the crepe too thick because I was scared that if it was too thin, it wouldn't taste like the mango pancakes I had before. And then I think I overcooked it because it wasn't quite as soft as I'd like it AND I also added too much food colouring so it ended up looking pretty cheap, like those ones at yum cha restaurants which you look at and know that it won't taste good but you still order cimply because it's a mango pancake, and you love mango pancake. Or is that just me? Luckily, the mangoes were really good so it didn't taste like it looked =) Infact, they were heavenly!! The mangoes are really the star of the show here so the slight problems with the crepe weren't too noticeable. And so these dissappeared in no time!

I know what I'll be doing with this season's mangoes!

Find the recipe on my new site:
http://berrynutritious.com.au/2010/09/yum-cha-style-mango-pancakes/