Picarones, chancaca honey and fresh cheese

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A Christmas staple in Robert Ortiz's native Peru, picarones make a wonderful dessert or tasty snack for a party. In this picarones recipe, the sweets are made from pumpkin and sweet potato purée, flavoured with aniseed and served with chancaca syrup, made from grated raw sugar and honey.

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Picarones

  • 400g of sweet potato
  • 500g of pumpkin
  • 50g of yeast
  • 100ml of water, lukewarm
  • 60g of sugar
  • 3g of salt
  • 400g of plain flour
  • 5g of anise seeds
  • 2 eggs
  • 1000ml of vegetable oil, for frying

Blue potato crisps

Chancaca honey

To serve

  • 200g of ricotta, or other fresh cheese

Equipment

  • Mandoline
  • Deep fat fryer
  • Mouli or potato ricer

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4
2
Cut the pumpkin into large chunks and place into the oven with the whole sweet potato. Cook until soft and tender for approximately 60-75 minutes but do not allow to colour
3
Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then remove and discard the skin. Separately, add the soft pumpkin and sweet potato to a ricer or mouli and pass through until smooth - the purées will be used for step 5
4
Reduce the oven temperature to 76°C
5
Dissolve the yeast in the water with the sugar and salt. Measure out 300g of the sweet potato purée and 300g of pumpkin purée, then add to a bowl with the flour, anise seeds and eggs, blending and mixing well to form a dough. Place in the fridge to rest for 1 hour
  • 50g of yeast
  • 60g of sugar
  • 3g of salt
  • 400g of plain flour
  • 5g of anise seeds
  • 2 eggs
  • 100ml of water, lukewarm
6
Use a mandoline to slice the blue potatoes as thinly as possible. Lay out onto a baking tray lined with white parchment paper and sprinkle with icing sugar. Cover with another sheet of parchment and bake in the oven for 2 hours
7
Meanwhile, make the chancaca honey. Combine the grated chancaca with the remaining ingredients in a pan. Boil for approximately 20 minutes until it reaches a syrupy consistency, then whisk well and pass through a fine sieve
8
To form the picarones, rub your hands with a little oil (this will stop them sticking to the dough) and form small balls of the dough. Deep-fry in the oil at 160°C until golden brown, then turn over so they achieve a nice even colour. Drain on kitchen paper and drizzle with the chancaca syrup
  • 1000ml of vegetable oil, for frying
9
Serve hot with some ricotta and crispy potatoes
  • 200g of ricotta, or other fresh cheese

Robert Ortiz is a pioneer of Peruvian cuisine, bringing the heady flavours and bright colours of his native country to an appreciative European audience.

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