Most celebrations for the Catholic community come to an end today as tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, marks the start of 40 days of Lent, which is spent fasting and in prayer, before Easter. To mark the start of the period, members from the community feast on sweet pancakes on what is popularly called ‘Pancake Tuesday’
Since Melitta Fernandes is an East Indian, she uses sugar instead of black jaggery for the preparation. Photo: Melitta Fernandes
City-based home chef Neysha Pereira remembers helping her mother make the pancakes for Pancake Tuesday in their Marine Lines home ever since she was 10 years old. It started by grating the coconut and making the filling with jaggery a day prior before the pancake was rolled because it is best eaten fresh. She explains, “If there are no pancakes for the day, we would be really sad and feel like we missed out on something.” Unsurprisingly, Pereira’s mother learned to make the pancakes from her mother and now it has become a family ritual.