Peru - Picarones

Picarones are fried doughnuts of pumpkin and sweet potato sold in the streets of Peru. They seem unusual but I'm looking forward to trying them!

Ingredients:

* pumpkin
* sweet potatoes
* 1 tsp cinnamon
* 1 tsp cloves
* 1 tbls yeast
* 1 tbls sugar
* 1 egg
* 2 cups of flour
* 1 tbls molasses



Cut the sweet potato and pumpkin into chunks. Cook in a pan of boiling water with the cloves and cinnamon.



When they are soft, drain and remove the cloves. Add the molasses and then mash thoroughly.



In a bowl add the yeast and sugar to half a cup of warm water. Let sit for a minute then add the egg and mashed vegetables. Mix well.



Now add the flour a bit at a time and continue mixing until you have a stretchy but still sticky dough.



Heat some oil in a pan until hot enough to fry. Dip your fingers in cold water and form the dough into a rough circle. Fry until golden brown turning once. Drain on kitchen paper.



Serve in a bowl drizzled with syrup of your choice.



They were suprisingly delicious. They had a lovely spicy sweet flavour and were very fluffy and light in texture. Not what I expected at all. I bet even my kids would eat vegetables this way!

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