Picarones

Ingredients

• For the dough
• 300 g sweet potato, cooked and mashed
• 200 g butternut squash or zapallo loche, cooked and mashed
• 7 g dried yeast
• 250 g plain flour, plus only as much as necessary — see method
• 1 tsp anise seeds
• 1 tsp fine salt
• For frying
• 1.5 litres neutral oil, for deep-frying
• For the chancaca syrup
• 250 g chancaca (panela or rapadura), broken into pieces
• 250 ml water
• 1 strip orange peel, pith removed
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 fig leaf, fresh or dried; substitute bay leaf if unavailable

Method

1. 1
   Combine the mashed sweet potato and squash in a large bowl while still warm. Add the anise seeds, salt, and dried yeast. Work in the flour gradually, mixing until the dough is cohesive but remains distinctly wet and sticky. Resist the impulse to add further flour: the dough should cling to the bowl and to the hand. Cover and leave to prove at room temperature until visibly risen and slightly puffy with small bubbles at the surface.
2. 2
   While the dough proves, make the chancaca syrup. Combine the chancaca pieces, water, orange peel, cinnamon stick, cloves, and fig leaf in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil, stirring until the chancaca dissolves, then reduce the heat and simmer. The syrup is ready when it coats the back of a spoon at nappe consistency — it runs in a slow, even sheet rather than in drops. Remove from the heat and keep warm; the syrup will thicken further on cooling and must not be allowed to harden.
3. 3
   Heat the oil in a deep, wide vessel to 175–180 °C. Verify the temperature with a thermometer; this range is the operative window. Below it the picarones absorb oil and the interior remains gluey; above it the crust sets before the centre cooks through. Maintain the temperature throughout frying and fry in small batches — crowding the pan drops oil temperature and causes the rings to stick and tear.
4. 4
   Wet one hand thoroughly. Take a portion of dough in the wet hand, press a hole through its centre with a wet finger, and spin the ring onto the finger before releasing it directly into the hot oil. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: if the dough is stiffened with excess flour it will not spin; if the oil temperature has drifted the ring will not hold its form or will remain raw at the centre. Fry each ring, turning once, until deep golden on both sides and the surface feels firm and dry to a wooden skewer tapped against it.
5. 5
   Lift the picarones with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on a rack. Serve immediately — picarones are a street food; they do not hold. Drizzle generously with warm chancaca syrup and bring to the table at once. The syrup should coat the ring in a thin, glossy film and carry the scent of orange peel and cinnamon to the nose before the first bite.