Arianna Ruth
Flour: 250g, sifted
Still water: 500ml
Butter: 150g (room temp.)
Salt: 15g
Pecorino cheese: 80g, or Parmesan
Eggs: 250g (5 eggs roughly – whisked)
A tasty and simple appetiser with tangy pecorino cheese by chef Rafael Cagali from restaurant Elis in London.
Put water, butter and salt in a pot and bring to a simmer, whisking. Allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
Add flour to the pot and continue whisking/stirring (a rubber spatula is better as less will stick to the spatula) and cook on medium/high heat for 5 minutes. Whisk/stir continuously so it does not stick to the bottom of the pot. The resulting dough should be dry and dense.
Remove from pot and place in a KitchenAid and mix on speed 2 until it begins to cool – roughly 4 minutes.
NOTE: It is possible to do this all by hand, it is just critical that the dough is cooled before you add the eggs to avoid scrambling. To do it by hand, let the dough cool for 10-15 minutes.
Add the pecorino to the dough mix and continue mixing – 2 minutes.
Add whisked eggs slowly into the dough mix on high speed to ensure it does not split.
Keep dough covered and refrigerated until needed.
Put dough into a piping bag/plastic bag with tip cut off.
Heat any neutral oil (e.g. vegetable oil, peanut oil) to 190°C.
Pipe dough into oil and use scissors to snip off end of each churro length from bag.
Fry until golden brown.
Take churros out of fryer and let drain on paper towel.
Place churros on plate and garnish with plenty of additional pecorino cheese when hot.
