Picarones

As tradition built it

Picarones

The dough rises 2 hours.

Ingredients

The dough

• 300g yellow camote (sweet potato)
• 500g zapallo macre (squash)
• 720ml water
• 50g fresh yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• a pinch salt
• 500g plain flour
• 1 tbsp aniseed
• for frying oil

The syrup

• 500g chancaca, grated
• 5 cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1 fig leaf
• 720ml water

Method

1. Cook the camote and zapallo in the water over a medium heat for 20 minutes. Drain them, keeping the water. Push them through a colander and let the purée cool.
2. Dissolve the yeast, sugar and salt in the cooking water. Cover and leave in a warm place 20 minutes.
3. Pour it over the purée and knead, adding the flour little by little, for 15 minutes more.
4. Add the anise and beat with a whisk until bubbles appear in the dough.
5. Cover and leave it 2 hours in a warm place.
6. Heat plenty of oil in a paila or a heavy pot over a medium heat.
7. Wet your hands, take a little dough, make a hole in the middle, and fry the picarón a few seconds, until golden. Lift it out with a thin rod and drain it.
8. For the syrup, cook the chancaca with the cloves, cinnamon, fig leaf and water over a medium heat for 20 minutes, until syrupy.
9. Serve the picarones with the syrup poured over.

Notes

Descended from the Spanish buñuelo, itself carrying Moorish Mediterranean influence, reworked in viceregal Lima with squash and camote folded in; the nuns of Lima's Convento de Santa Clara are credited with popularising the ring shape.

The recipe is El rincón que no conoces', the Lima criollo kitchen, for El Comercio. Anticuchería Sarita boils the anise with the vegetables, rests the dough an hour at room temperature, fries them four at a time for a minute over a high heat, and adds sugar and an orange to the syrup.

What a modern chef changes

Concentrated sweetness, a controlled fry, a faster reduction

Method

1. Dehydrate a portion of the squash and camote before working them into the dough, concentrating their natural sweetness rather than diluting the batter, so the ring holds its shape and crisps more cleanly in the fryer.
2. Fry in small batches at a carefully held temperature, monitored rather than guessed, for an even, properly aerated puff through the whole ring rather than a dense centre under a crisp shell.
3. Reduce the chancaca syrup with a wider, shallower pan than tradition typically uses, for a faster, cleaner reduction that holds its spice more distinctly rather than dulling over a long simmer.