Back in May, the hubs and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. We usually go to a French restaurant since we had our honeymoon in France, but this year we decided to change things up a bit and decided on Indian instead.
We headed down to the East Village where we knew we would find a great Indian restaurant. Sure enough, we did! The food was really good and we were stuffed. We weren't ready to go home yet so we decided to look for a place in the area for dessert. We came across a crepe place called
The Crooked Tree.
Since I was so full, I really could have shared one but since we couldn't agree on which one to get, we ended up with our own. The crepes were huge!! I ended up getting a crepe with mango, almonds and chocolate. Oh My Goodness!! I was in heaven! The flavor combinations were amazing! The warm, sweet, creamy chocolate, the cold fresh mango and the crunch of the sliced almonds was just a party in my mouth and I didn't want it to end. But just like all things, it did end. I ate the whole thing!!
Well, ever since that day, I've been thinking about those crepes. I just can't get them out of my mind. Turns out, today is Chocolate Day!! What do you know - a perfect excuse to try and recreate those crepes. Luckily I had everything I thought I would need. There was no way I was going out today to get ingredients. No matter how good they are! It's like a sauna here in NYC today. I am definitely happy to be indoors with my new best friend A/C.
So here goes. First you need to start out by making crepes. (not too obvious) I found a
crepe recipe on the Food Network by Alton Brown. You can check there for the specifics. I used the "sweet" version.
Once you have your crepe batter made, put it in the fridge while you get the other things ready.
First step is to work on the mango.
The mango needs to be peeled and cut. There is a long flat pit going through the length of the mango. Once you peel it, you want to cut on wither side of the pit.
You can have your knife feel for where it is so you know where to cut.
Once you have that done, you want to cut the mango into strips,
then turn it the other way and cut again to dice it up.
We want a small dice here so if they come out too big, just cut the pieces a bit smaller. Set the diced mango aside in a container and keep it in the fridge to stay cold.
Next I took some sliced almonds which you can find at any store and just toasted them up a bit in a dry pan - just for a few minutes. Watch it though because you don't want it to burn.
Put that in a separate bowl until we're ready to assemble.
Now it's time to make the crepes. This may sound a bit scary to some of you but really, once you get the hang of it, you'll be fine.
You want to use a non stick pan with a little butter. You want to pour some of the batter into the center of the pan and then swirl to get it around the edges.
Don't panic if you're first one is a dud. Look at mine. Poor thing.
OK, that was our practice one. We'll do better on number 2.
Yep - looks much better. By the time I got to the 3rd one, I was on a roll.
When each crepe is done, just put it on your cutting board to cool and when the next one is ready, put the cooled one on a plate. You don't want to stack them while they are hot or they'll stick to each other.
I ended up with about a dozen good crepes. Not bad!!
Now we need some melted chocolate. I just used whatever I had on hand which happened to be semi sweet chocolate chips. You can use whatever chocolate you have as well. I just popped it in the microwave until it was all melted.
Assembly time!
Place a crepe on a plate and spread the chocolate on half the crepe.
Next up is the diced mango,
followed by a sprinkling of the almonds.
Fold it in half,
then half again.
Drizzle some extra chocolate on top,
with some more almonds,
and a dusting of powdered sugar.
What do you think?
Looks pretty good, huh?!?
Wish you were here to taste it!
Not exactly like the one at The Crooked Tree, but close enough to satisfy my urge.
How will you indulge on Chocolate Day?
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