Mango Trifle from the ground up

One of our December holiday "traditions" is to make trifle. We don't do it every year, and sometimes we make trifle outside of December, which is why I've put "tradition" in bunny quotes. But, we've had trifle a few times at Christmas, and we like it a lot.

This year we had an idea (okay, we saw it on Better Homes & Gardens) to put mango into trifle. We've got mangoes up the wazoo, so I decided to create a tropical trifle for Christmas this year. And I had an opportunity to pre-test it when I was asked to bring dessert to dinner at a friend's house.

Only trouble is, it was in the mid-high-30s, Celsius - and humid - the week I was due to make the pre-test trifle. So I didn't want to put on the oven to make a cake for the bottom layer. And since vegan cakes aren't so easy to find in Townsville, I couldn't take the storebought cheater's way out. I contemplated, and considered, and was finally struck with inspiration - pancakes! They are basically just like cake, and don't involve the oven. Since I cut up the cake layer of the trifle into chunks anyways, why not use pancakes?

So here is how we constructed our tropical trifle, from the bottom layer right up to the top.

Ground floor. Make a batch of pancakes. This can be done ahead of time. I needed 8 pancakes which were about 5 or 6 inches in diameter. When you're ready to build the trifle, sandwich two pancakes together with jam (mango, obviously). Cut them into squares and put in the bottom of the trifle bowl (we use a deep-ish glass baking dish). Sprinkle with a weensy bit (or a lot) of cointreau, or use some other kind of booze.

First floor. Cut the cheeks off of two mangoes, and cut them into chunks. Put these on top of the pancakes.  Give the trifle bowl a good shake to settle everything in together.

Second floor. Now, make some jelly. If you have an easy source of tropical-ish flavoured vegan jelly, lucky you! We don't. So I made some pineapple jelly using a tin of crushed pineapple and about 2 tablespoons of agar flakes. Soak the agar in just enough water to cover, and meanwhile boil the pineapple, juice & all, for 3 or 4 minutes. Tip in the agar and keep it boiling for another 5 or 10 minutes, until the agar fully dissolves. You can check whether the agar has worked by dipping a spoon into the pan and then sticking it in the fridge for a minute. It should set up obviously - if not, add more agar (I had to, I think because the acidity of the pineapple).  Pour this over the mango, and again give it a good shake to let it settle into the cracks.

The tinned pineapple resulted in a layer of juice-jelly settling around the pancakes, and a layer of fruit-jelly sitting on top of the mango. I kinda dug it this way, but Andy's mum & grandma & aunties all set the jelly in a separate pan, break it up with a fork, and then put it on top of the fruit, so I will do it this way for the Christmas trifle.

Third floor. When the jelly has cooled a touch, add a sliced banana. Or whatever other tropical fruit you have and like.

Penthouse. Make custard. I used the recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking, with a few alterations. In a jug, mix 1/3 c. raw sugar, 2 T. plain flour, and 4 T. corn flour (corn starch). Open a 400ml can of coconut cream (sold as, I believe, coconut milk in the US - cream of coconut is something else involving sweet). Whisk about 1/4 c. of the coconut cream into the sugar until smooooooth. Heat up the rest of the tin of coconut cream, plus a smidge of water to rinse the can, over medium-low heat. When it's at a simmer, tip about 1/2 c. of the hot coconut milk into the jug, and whisk again until smooth, then tip all of that into the pan. Cook and whisk constantly until it's nice and thick, and then turn off the heat and whisk hard for 30 seconds. Then pour, gently (don't want to mess up those carefully placed bananas!) onto the top of the trifle.  Smooth the top, cover with cling wrap, and chill.

Admire the layers. Add toasted coconut on top, if you can be bothered. Or don't. Consume.

Mango Pancakes

What to eat for breakfast when you have no soy milk, no bread, and a pile of mangoes? While you could just eat, well, mangoes, our extreme glut led to a bit more creativity in terms of how we consume them.  Thus, the idea for mango pancakes was born.  These are fluffy and orange, and perfect topped with more mango.

I will post the recipe as I made it, but note that I didn't add any sugar - I thought the mangoes would be sweet enough.  And if we had used Bowen mangoes, they probably would have been.  Instead, we used the variety royal red mango, which is less sweet.  So next time I make these I will add just a touch of sugar - maybe a tablespoon - to the batter, to enhance the flavour of the mango a bit.  Use your judgement, and your taste preferences.

Also, if you don't have fresh (or frozen) mango on hand to blend up, I suspect mango juice will work perfectly - you just may need to reduce the amount of water that goes into the batter, because the juice won't be as thick as the puree. If you're feeling decadent and have fresh coconut juice around, I think that would make a fantastic substitution for the plain water.

Mango Pancakes
serves 2 hungry adults

1 1/2 c. plain flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. pureed mango
3/4 to 1 c. water
2 Tbsp. rice bran oil (or other plain-tasting veg. oil)

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.  In a separate jug, stir mango, 3/4 c. water and oil together.  Add the mango mixture to the flour and stir until just mixed.  If the batter is too thick, add additional water as needed.  It should be pretty thick - these are fluffy pancakes - but it should be viscous enough to pour, just.

Let the batter rest for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat up your pan - preferably cast iron or non-stick. Lightly brush it with a coating of oil.  When it's good and hot, pour a small spoonful of batter into the pan.  The first pancake never works well for me, so I get around this by making it a really tiny one.  While you're eating the test-pancake, pour a larger amount of batter into the pan and spread it slightly into a circle.  I use a serving spoon for this, as I find it gives me the right amount of batter for easily-flippable pancakes.

The pancakes are ready to flip when the edges look dry and you can see bubbles in the surface.  If you're not sure, peek under the edge.  Flip, and watch the pancakes puff up and go super-fluffy.  When the other side is brown, transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven while you finish the rest of the batch.

Serve warm, with more mango, or with a tropical-ish jam, or with some kind of syrup.

Mango Madness

I'm going to pause my travel stories for a moment, and fast forward to the present.  As America picks over Thanksgiving leftovers and gears up for Christmas, I'm loving summer here in Australia, because summer = mango season.  Andy and I are mango-obsessed, so I was not terribly unhappy to leave the US in the end of October, saying goodbye to this:

Especially because it meant coming home to this:

And this, which I think is prettier than any Christmas tree.

Within two weeks of coming home, we have welcomed about 100 mangoes into our home.  Not all at once - the most we had at any given moment was 59, but we've been eating them and adding more.

You might think this is overkill, but last year's mango season had so much promise, and was then cruelly cut short by the stupid wet season.  So we couldn't resist, on the bike path one afternoon, the mangoes that looked to be within reach that were just starting to blush.  We pulled over, and found that they were higher than they looked, and even Andy's extreme 6'6 reach couldn't grab them.  Did we let that defeat us? Hell no - Andy boosted me up, and somehow we managed to come home with a backpack-full of big, Bowen mangoes.

Later in the week, we went out with Dee and BoaB and their amazing telescopic pruner.

Then we went to the uni and scoured the trees there.

And the next weekend we bought two buckets at the markets.  I did mention we were a bit obsessive, right?

We've been eating a few fresh mangoes every day.  Usually straight up, but also with ice cream, crumpets, or tapioca pudding.  Or, this morning, in pancakes (recipe here).

In smoothies.

In green mango salad (made with fresh tumeric, chilli, and lime juice from Dee and BoaB's garden - delicious!).

And in spicy mango salsa, on burritos.

Our goal, in addition to eating as many fresh, delicious mangoes as possible, is to preserve them in lots of different ways, so we can enjoy mango-deliciousness all year round.  I wish we had a preserving kit, or even the gear that let us jar stuff in a sterile and long-lasting way. I also wish we had a giant freezer.  But we don't.  We do, however, have a dehydrator, a bread maker, and an ice cream maker.  So we put them to use.

We've had a few batches of dried mango slices.

And fruit leather.

And we've made some mango-ginger-lime sorbet, which admittedly won't last us all year long, or even all month long, but it is delicious.

And we put the breadmaker to use on a few batches of mango jam.

We've got four methods of getting into mangoes in our repertoire.  First, for mangoes that are on the underripe side, and which you want to cut up the whole thing, including the fruit around the seed - peeling the skin works best.

Just be careful not to peel yourself. It hurts.

For mangoes that are quite ripe, and which you want to cut up the whole thing, including the fruit around the seed - score a shallow X in each cheek of the mango, then peel the skin off with your hands.  If you want just the cheeks of the mango, and aren't so fussed about the seed (for example, to serve at a dinner party with tapioca pudding...) you can just cut the cheeks off and scoop out the fruit with a spoon.  If you just want to eat the mango, and not bother with cutting, our favourite is to cut off the cheeks, score, and then pop out.  We refer to it as 'porcupined', but it doesn't look that much like a porcupine I guess.

Barring any unforeseen, mango-wrecking rains, we should be living this lifestyle for another few weeks at least. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Leftover Oatmeal Pancakes

The other day we were running low on soy milk, so I made oats for breakfast instead of cereal.  I put in the amount that I thought Andy usually makes - I filled up a drinking glass with oats, and then added two full drinking glasses of water.  And some brown sugar, cinnamon, and dried mixed fruit.  Only, when I poured it into our bowls, it was much, much more than we could eat in one go.

Instead of letting that leftover porridge go to waste, though, we made pancakes!  I followed this recipe, except that I used egg replacer powder instead of eggs (overripe bananas would probably be very yummy, if bananas didn't cost so much at the moment!).  And a mixture of soy milk + water instead of cow milk.  They were super easy to make, and they cooked up nicely. 

And the results were yummy - chewy, moist and full of flavour from the fruit and cinnamon in the porridge.

We had ours with jam. And they were delightful.  I think I'll make too much porridge from now on...

It's a big batch, though - we got 14 regular sized (maybe 4 or 5 inch circles) and one bigger one.  So now we have leftover leftover porridge pancakes

Pancake Battle

Some of you may remember the pancake debate which pervades the Tropical Vegan household, which I have mentioned previously on this blog. I am still firmly in support of light, fluffy pancakes.  Andy tolerates them, but still prefers thin pancakes. 

However.  I recently grabbed a Hungarian cookbook from the library, and saw a recipe for thin pancakes that intrigued me, and looked easy enough to veganise.  That, and their suggested fillings, had me scribbling down some recipes to try out.  So we tried them.  And I think I don't dislike thin pancakes the way I used to.  Part of this has to do with technique -- I think I've finally figured out how to make thin pancakes that don't suck.  Instead of trying to do the pan-flick that spreads the batter around, which I suck at because 1) my pan is the wrong size and shape, 2) I'm not quick enough and 3) I lack the requisite style in the kitchen for that sort of cooking, I have adopted a method of spooning in the batter and spreading it thinly with the back of my spoon.

That said, I still like fluffy pancakes best.  Here are recipes for both versions.  Where do you weigh in on the pancake debate?

Thin Hungarian Pancakes
250 g. flour
pinch of salt
2 t. sugar
1 T. egg replacer powder
200 mL soy milk
1/3 c. water
3 T. rice bran oil
150 - 200 mL soda water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, and egg replacer powder.  In a jug, combine soy milk, water, and oil, then add this to the dry ingredients.  Beat to a smooth batter, and then whisk in soda water until you have a creamy consistency.  You should be able to pour/drizzle a spoonful of batter, so if it is too thick for this then whisk in a bit more soda water.  Leave to stand at least 10 minutes.  Brush a skillet with a tiny bit of oil and heat over medium-high.  When the skillet is fully heated, spoon in a small amount of batter and immediately spread it into a thin circle.  Cook till golden brown on both sides.

Makos Palacstina (Pancakes with Poppy Seed filling)
1 c. ground poppy seeds
1/2 c. icing sugar
1 t. vanilla
100 mL soy milk
1/4 c. raisins

Heat milk in a small saucepan.  When milk is hot, add poppy seeds, icing sugar, vanilla and raisins.  Stir well, then turn off heat, cover the pan, and let this sit for 10 minutes (while you cook the pancakes).  To serve, spoon into pancakes and fold or roll up.

Fluffy pancakes

3/4 c. plain flour
1/2 c. plain wholemeal flour (or use all plain flour)
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 T. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1 1/3 c. soy milk
1 T. apple cider vinegar

1/3 c. water
2 T. rice bran oil


Combine flours, baking powder, salt, sugar and cinnamon and mix well until no lumps remain.  In a jug, combine soy milk, vinegar, water and oil.  Add this to the dry ingredients and mix with a fork until just combined.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Heat a skillet over med-high heat.  When skillet is fully heated, spoon a small amount of batter into the pan.  Cook until bubbles appear and edges dry out, then flip and brown on the other side.

Now that we've got two good recipes, we're both happy to compromise on our pancake preferences -- but as the principle pancake maker, fluffy is still my default.  What can I say -- when you've got the recipe memorised, it's easy to make them without even thinking.

Things I eat when I'm home alone.

For some reason, I am a very lazy cook when Andy goes away. I don't know why – I love cooking, and I love eating, but I kind of can't be bothered for just me. So I tend to eat a lot of quick things, like noodles. Sometimes I don't even bother with food and just have a juice-meal.

Every now and then, however, I muster some motivation and come up with some pretty good results.

For St Patrick's Day I made a tiny loaf of Irish Soda Bread, from Joy of Vegan Baking. This was enough for me to have dinner and breakfast the next day (with ginger marmalade, yum).

With my soda bread, I had a small batch of Potatoes with 40 cloves of Garlic from Urban Vegan, and also which I saw on Nigella Cooks the weekend before. The squishy roasty garlic went really well on the bread.

A whole block of slightly-jiggly tofu without much flavouring is a major turn-off to some, but I kinda dig the flavour of plain tofu. I did marinate the outside of it for a bit in soy sauce and sesame oil before sprinkling some sesame seeds and nori flakes on top and baking.

Since the oven was on, I made Porcupine Potatoes, inspired by the Radioactive Vegan, sweet potato medallions, and a bit of roasted garlic. I also had a giant salad of cos lettuce which was reduced to clear, with creamy miso dressing. And a flashback to my childhood – quick pickled cucumbers (cucumbers, vinegar, sugar and salt, left to sit for a few hours or a few weeks). We used to call them 'super pickles' and eat them like there was no tomorrow.

Tofu scramblde doesn't require much inspiration, nor effort, although this one did have ceylon spinach from the garden which is a bit of a pain to harvest.

With a few onions that really needed using, and inspiration from VegNews magazine, I successfully made caramelised onions for the first time ever. I usually get impatient and burn them. They made a beautiful topping for foccaccia.

Seitan burgers from the freezer are a great home-alone dinner, especially with a quick side of home fries, and a pile of Ceylon spinach (quickly wilted by putting it in a colander and pouring boiling water over it). And a dill pickle, because I really love pickles.

My fruit-shopping requirements are eased when friends drop off backyard bananas, perfect for adding to morning muesli and smoothies.

In preparation for dinner with a friend of mine, I made some BBQ sauce based on Pomegranate BBQ Sauce from VwaV. Instead of pomegranate molasses, I used plum sauce which goes really well with the five-spice in the recipe. I poured it over some tofu to have for dinner the night I made it (with plenty left for later), with cooked rice and cucumbers and eventually made into yummy wraps.

For a nice relaxed weekend breakfast I made Pumpkin Pie Pancakes from Vegan Planet, which were a little disappointing.

Both the pumpkin and the spice were hardly noticeable.

And finally, to cap off a massive post, I marked easter weekend by attempting Hot Cross Buns. But I'm not religious, and my cross material was hard to work with, so I made maths symbols instead – plus signs, minus signs, multiplication signs, a fraction, and division signs. Here they are before baking.

Unfortunately, they didn't go so well. The tops didn't brown and just got kind of dry and crunchy, and the bottoms overbrowned and went chewy.

But they were edible, and saved me walking to the store.  And that's really what most of my single-food is about -- minimal effort.  Now that Andy is home, however, we have been cooking exciting things again.