Picarones

A yeasted squash batter too wet to roll, shaped in the air with wet hands and dropped straight into the oil.

Vegan.

Ingredients

For the rings

• 400 g squash, peeled and in chunks
• 300 g sweet potato, peeled and in chunks
• 500 g plain flour
• 10 g fast-action yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon aniseed
• oil for deep frying

For the syrup

• 250 g chancaca or dark muscovado sugar
• 300 ml water
• 1 orange, in thick slices
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 cloves
• a few fig leaves, if you have them

Method

1. THE DOUGH IS TOO WET TO ROLL AND IS SHAPED IN THE AIR. It is a thick batter rather than a dough -- it will not hold a shape on a board and must not be made stiff enough to. A ring is formed by taking a handful in a wet hand, letting it hang, and poking a thumb through the middle while lowering it into the oil, all in one movement. Thickened with more flour so it can be rolled out and cut, the picarones come out heavy and bready instead of hollow and lacy, and that is the single thing that decides this dish.
2. SO BOTH HANDS ARE KEPT WET, in a bowl of water beside the fryer, and re-wetted for every single ring. Dry hands and the batter welds to them.
3. THE SQUASH AND SWEET POTATO ARE STEAMED OR BOILED AND DRAINED VERY DRY, then mashed and cooled. Wet purée makes a batter that cannot be fried at all, and that is the commonest reason a first attempt fails.
4. THE YEAST IS PROVED IN THE WARM PURÉE, not in water. The purée is the liquid in this batter; there is almost no other. It must be warm rather than hot when the yeast goes in.
5. IT IS PROVED TWICE AND IT WILL LOOK ALARMING. Bubbly, slack and almost pourable. That is correct.
6. AND THE SYRUP IS MADE SEPARATELY AND POURED OVER, never the rings dipped into it. Dipped, they drink it and collapse; poured over at the table they stay crisp for a few minutes, which is as long as they last anyway.
7. Squash and sweet potato boiled or steamed 20 minutes until soft. DRAINED VERY DRY, mashed smooth, and cooled to warm.
8. The yeast and sugar stirred into the warm purée and left 15 minutes until frothy.
9. The flour, salt and aniseed beaten in to a thick, sticky, slack batter. Beaten hard 5 minutes.
10. Covered and proved 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES until doubled and bubbly, then knocked back and proved again 45 minutes.
11. Syrup: the chancaca, water, orange slices, cinnamon, cloves and fig leaves simmered 25 MINUTES until syrupy. Strained and kept warm.
12. Oil heated to 180C. A bowl of water set beside it.
13. A handful of batter taken in a WET hand, allowed to hang, a thumb pushed through the middle, and the ring lowered into the oil.
14. Fried 2 to 3 minutes, turned once, until deep gold and hollow-sounding. Three or four at a time.
15. Drained on a rack, piled on a plate, and the warm syrup POURED OVER at the table.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Peru · All recipes