Pancake Tuesday: How Mumbai’s Catholic community is giving a colourful and healthy twist to the delicacy enjoyed before Lent

Bandra-based Gazella Thomas remembers how she used to look forward to Shrove Tuesday, more popularly called Pancake Tuesday in Mumbai, long before it was coming simply because of the delicious pancakes. While the plan used to be to enjoy them again after Easter, the time would never come, she shares. "The delicious experience of savouring each pancake was gone too fast for just a single Tuesday. The next day you looked at those pancakes in the fridge with a spirit of self-control marking the season of Lent and you wish you had more time," Thomas shares the sentiment of every other member of the Catholic community in Mumbai around her as they observe Pancake Tuesday today.

Thomas found a way out of it because she just couldn't resist waiting for them for so long. "So, it was decided that we savour the pancakes starting a week earlier so that we can enjoy them for a full week before we start Lent," she adds.

Gazella Thomas says enjoying the pancakes only on Pancake Tuesday was never enough so her family used to start a week before. Photo Courtesy: Gazella Thomas

Marking the start of Lent
Every year, the Catholic community in Mumbai celebrates Pancake Tuesday to mark the start of Lent, the period during which followers of Christianity fast till Good Friday before celebrating Easter, which falls on March 31 this year. As the story goes, pancakes were made on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, being celebrated on February 14 this year, to finish up all the rich foods such as eggs, milk and sugar, and fats in the house before the fasting period. The tradition has continued to this day as members from the Goan, Mangalorean and East Indian communities make their versions of the pancakes, which are mostly the same except for the inclusion and exclusion of a few ingredients, which is what makes their pancakes unique from the other. The traditional recipe includes making a batter with eggs, milk and flour, which is poured on to the pan and fried lightly, before rolling it in a mixture of coconut and jaggery.

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In Thomas's home, her family has dedicatedly made it every year for as long as she can remember. She shares, "It was my mom who carried on this tradition and little did I know, years later I would be put up to take full responsibility. I realised that there were no shortcuts." The need to continue the tradition may have come from the sensory experience she had while growing up. "The aroma of making pancakes was full of coconut, be it fresh coconut or desiccated coconut, the whisking sound of that batter, the play with the colours turned a simple delicacy into a cherished tradition," she adds.

Adding colours to the pancake has been one of the major changes, highlights Thomas, along with stuffing them with marzipan or chocolate. While that isn't tradition, she says the flavour with cashew and raisins definitely hits home for her. In all these years, the Mumbaikar has seen a huge difference in the pancakes made in Goa and Mumbai. While the former has the sweetest taste because of the coconuts used, the pancakes made by Mumbaikars are nutty and even have different kinds of colours. While people may often confuse these pancakes for the ones made abroad, Thomas says these are nothing like the ones made with maple syrup, and the effort means that when you share them with your friends, all the effort put into grating the coconut makes it worth it. Interestingly, Thomas has been tied up with work and is still to decide if she will be making pancakes this year.

Jewel Rodrigues grew up making pancakes with her mother but has tweaked the recipe to use jaggery instead of sugar. Photo Courtesy: Jeanelle Rodrigues

Adding jaggery and dry fruits
Elsewhere in Malad, Jewel Rodrigues has also been making pancakes for as long as she can remember because her memories go back to her childhood. With time, 58-year-old Rodrigues has changed the way she makes her pancakes. "One significant change is the substitution of sugar with jaggery to make it a healthier option. This also allows some of my family members to have it who are maintaining a healthier diet," she explains. Along with the use of jaggery instead of sugar, Rodrigues says she adds generous amounts of dry fruits along with the coconut stuffing in the wrapped pancakes.

It is no wonder then that Rodrigues reveals that learning to make the pancakes from her mother while assisting her is one of her fondest memories associated with the dish. "Now, as a parent, it brings me immense joy to involve my three children in the tradition, passing down the skills and memories from one generation to the next," she adds. In the process, the Malad resident says it brings the family together and that is what she loves most about the tradition.


In Bandra, Dinelle Lobo is continuing her family's East Indian tradition of making pancakes that she learned from her mother (right). Photo Courtesy: Dinelle Lobo

Continuing family tradition with a twist
It is no different for Dinelle Lobo, another Bandra resident, and home baker who goes by @learned_from_mom on Instagram, has also been continuing the family tradition, just like her mother Hilda Gonsalves, who is a self-taught cake artist. She shares, "My mom has been making pancakes since she was a little girl, alongside her mom. She has made them for us, and now for her grandchildren. We now stand next to her and learn how to make the batter and filing and how to swirl the pan."

Over the years, she and her sister have taken the liberty to experiment with their pancakes and there is one striking difference. "During my mom's childhood, they made almonds into bits, but now we use cashew nuts instead. We use our grandmother's recipe, which is a hand-me-down from generations. Usually the pancakes are pink, green and white, but in the last few years, my sister Gillian decided to change things up, and colour the pancakes, with brush strokes and flowers," she adds.

Along the way, Lobo has many fond memories with the pancakes, especially with her mother. "Standing next to my mom in her kitchen and swirling the batter in the pan is one of my favourite memories. When the pancake gets slightly over done (brown), my mom won't use it. So, it goes straight into my tummy," shares a visibly happy 42-year-old. It is not only these memories but also the conversations and laughs that come along with it that make it even better. "Even though she gives us free rein to do it the way we want, she is always behind us with a guiding hand. What amazes me the most is that, when making the batter, she doesn't need to measure the ingredients, and can tell me just how much each of the ingredients that are set aside weigh. It is also her need for perfection and keeping alive East Indian traditions that make it better," shares Lobo.

Beyond her family, Krislyn Gomes now also caters to other people by making colourful versions of pancakes for Pancake Tuesday. Photo Courtesy: Krislyn Gomes

Catering to people
While most members of the Catholic community have grown up eating pancakes for Pancake Tuesday, as their mother's continue the legacy in the family, Krislyn Gomes takes it a step further. She explains, "We have been always following it as family tradition, but since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been running a home kitchen called Kris's Den, which she runs along with her cousin Denise, to cater to the needs of others in Mumbai." While in the days gone by, they used to make the plain versions at home, now, Gomes like many others in the city adds a whole lot of colours to them to make it eye-catching.

The Mumbaikar from Bandra has also tweaked the traditional recipes like Rodrigues to make the pancakes with jaggery instead of sugar to cater to those who are conscious about their health. As she makes her pancakes for this time around, Gomes reminisces how they used to also share it with their neighbours in the past to extend their celebrations to people around them, and the home kitchen is only an extension of that today.