Hot Chocolate, Churros and Contraband
Could this be the best thing on earth? Hot chocolate so-thick-and-pudding-like-your-spoon-won’t-sink-into-it served with crisp and sugary pieces of fried dough. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, for me the one below reminds me of two of my fondest childhood memories: bribes & contraband.
As a kid growing up in south of France near the spanish border, i remember week-end trips with my family to the beautiful coastal city of San Sebastian in the Navarre region of Spain, only a two-hour drive away. In the days before the euro, a common practice was to go there to spend the week-end and load the trunk of the car with goodies before going home. The currency difference made it a big bargain. What i didn’t know is that i was a conspirator in a Pastis and cigarettes contraband scheme and i was getting bribed by my parents with hot chocolate and churros (i eventually got smarter and started to ask for toys as well). My job was to give the border inspection officers the sweetest innocent smile possible to avoid a trunk search. It wasn’t easy! My parents imposed that i regularly watch ‘Bambi’ for practice…
The Spanish border inspection was notoriously tough and scary while their French counterpart notoriously didn’t give a sh*t or were too drunk to notice that the back of the car was so heavy it almost touched the ground… or maybe they thought the child smiling at them had a really fat ass from eating too many churros. Overall, i remember being quite successful at it. The only time my father had to pay the $100 fine is the day that i sneezed. Sorry dad!
The good news is that you can re-create these babies at home with not too much efforts. Believe me, there’s no better hot chocolate in the world than the thick spanish version. For the churros, you better invest in a cheap Churro Maker
to make them in a flash, you’ll be glad you did! See recipe below.
to make them in a flash, you’ll be glad you did! See recipe below.
San Sebastian
|
|
|
Churros and Hot Chocolate (serves 4) |
Churros:
- 8 cups vegetable or olive oil (for frying)
- 1 cup water
- 1/2-cup butter
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 eggs
- 1/4-cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon, optional
Hot Chocolate:
- 5 oz. dark chocolate
- 2 cups milk
- 1 1/2 Tbs. cornstarch
- 4 Tbs. sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 1 Tbs rum (optional)
To prepare the churros:
- Heat the oil in a deep frying pan to 360 degrees F.
- To make the churro dough, heat the water, butter, and salt to a rolling boil in a 3-quart saucepan. Add the flour and stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, approximately 1 minute and remove from heat.
- Beat eggs until smooth and add to the saucepan while stirring the mixture. Mix unti smooth.
- Spoon the mixture into the Churro Maker (chucherro)
- Drain on paper towels. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and roll the churros in the sugar mixture. Set aside until ready to serve.
To prepare the hot chocolate:
- Place the chocolate and half the milk in a saucepan over very low heat and cook, stirring, until the chocolate has melted.
- Dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining milk and whisk into the chocolate with the sugar. Cook on low heat, whisking constantly until the chocolate thickens, approximately 5 minutes.
- Remove and whisk until smooth. Pour chocolate into cups and serve with churros.
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
Uncategorized
