Every country that I have visited has at least one food that I just cannot get out of my head. I may have some luke-warm memories about the food overall (cough cough Peru), but man oh man, there has to be at least one gooey or glorious concoction that haunts my dreams. Picarones are that Peruvian perfection. Granted, there is no way I could ever live up to the sizzling standard of that little old woman, sitting on a stool next to a giant pot of boiling oil, poking at the dough with her wooden stick and letting those babies float in the oil till they turn golden brown. But, I just had to try. So onto the baking. Picarones are essentially squash donuts, and the recipe is not that complicated (especially when you make it tesla-style). I cubed one of those squash
crescents that you can get at the market for a buck (easier than splitting one yourself) and boiled it in water with a bunch of cinnamon for 10min. Then I mashed it together with a couple of eggs and some salt. I let 2 cups of the water cool down to yeasting temperature and proceeded to mix it with one of those packages of yeast. After the yeasting, I added the water to the squash and eggs, and then slowly added flour until it was a good, sort of post-pancake/pre-bread texture. Oh, and you probably want some sugar to sweeten things up a bit. Let it sit for an hour and shazam! you're ready for frying. The best part about these donuts (ok, one of the best parts) is that they fit perfectly into the toaster for days to come! The other best part is that they have squash in them so I can pretend like they're h
ealthy! Really, you can't go wrong. Mmmm.....Picarones. Oh, and I threw in this picture of well-executed picarones so you can see how the tesla-substitute compares. All of my food may look wonky on the outside, but on one hand, I haven't been frying picarones by the side of the road for the last 40 years, and on the other hand, it tastes good and that's what counts? Right? At least when I'm cooking....I think I probably should have cut down the recipe a 
bunch and gone for a thicker texture, but damn! it was calling for a friggin' pound of flour!So yes. Add more yeast and flour for fluffier picarones. Top with honey, jam, peanut butter, nutella, cinnamon and sugar....or all of the above concurrently. Here's an official recipe if you are interested.
