Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Churros with Lime Sugar and Chocolate Sauce


Every other week, I travel with my account executives. Often we have set appointments and one of them is typically with a client or prospect that we invite for lunch. It is a great way to build rapport and strengthen the client relationship, while enjoying a wonderful lunch. Being in the Bay Area, we have a plethora of exceptional dining choices.


With one of my account executives, she had scheduled the lunch the day prior to our pre-arranged travel day, so we attended our scheduled appointments and lunch was on our own. One of our favorite lunch spots is Bocanova in Oakland which is housed at the renovated Jack London Square. The cuisine is a blend of celebrating central, south and North America cultures. The recipes and ingredients span from Mexico to Argentina.



Rick Hackett is the chef and he is a classically trained French chef who admired his Peruvian sous-chef and his mostly Hispanic staff. The dishes they prepared for the staff were delicious and began his inspiration for the food at Bocanova.



The design and atmosphere is warm, inviting and completely hip. The menu is laid out to highlight items that are from the pantry, the raw bar, the garden, the sea, the stove, the oven and the grill. You can select small plates or decide to share a wide variety of tastes.



I especially recommend the Dungeness Crab Deviled Eggs with Chipotle Aioli. In addition, the Quinoa Salad is seasonal and always full of flavor. The fried chicken sandwich is a piece of foodie art – the flavors explode in your mouth. Last but certainly not least were the Churros with Mexican chocolate sauce. They were deep fried bites of goodness and exemplified by dipping in the rich chocolate sauce.


Over the weekend, a craving for churros just came over me. They have been on my list of “must makes” for quite sometime. I wanted to put my own twist on them, so instead of dipping them in the traditional cinnamon sugar mixture, I did it with lime zest. The addition of citrus along with the deep fried dough and rich chocolate sauce was worthy of winning an award.



Churros with Lime Sugar and Chocolate Sauce

Vegetable or olive oil, for frying

1 C. water
4 ounces butter
1/4 t. salt
1 C. flour
3 eggs
1/4 C.sugar

Prepare to fry the churros by heating 1 to 1 1/2 inches oil in a deep pan to 360 degrees F.

To make churro dough, heat water, butter and salt to rolling boil in medium saucepan; stir in flour. Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute; remove from the heat. Beat eggs all at once; continue beating until smooth and then add to saucepan while stirring mixture.

Spoon mixture into a piping tube with large star tip. Squeeze 4-inch strips of dough into hot oil. Fry 3 or 4 strips at a time until golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes on each side. Make sure the oil is at the proper temperature, so you do not burn the churros. Drain on paper towels. Mix the sugar and lime zest. Roll churros in the lime sugar. Serve with Chocolate Sauce.

Lime Sugar

1 T. Lime zest
½ C. Sugar

Mix together well and place in a flat bowl to roll churros.

Chocolate Sauce

½ C. Heavy Cream
One Ibarra Mexican Chocolate disk
¼ C. Dark Chocolate chips

In a medium saucepan, add all of the ingredients and slowly heat over medium. Stir until combined and smooth. You may need to add a bit more chocolate to thicken.

15 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, Lisa. Your churros look perfect. I was craving them not too long ago but I wouldn't have had the guts to every try them. I can see how the lime sugar provided a nice contrast to the chocolate sauce. Wow!

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  2. Well I have to say this look fabulous, I just made these, they are really really dark going to post them for Cinco de mayo... can't believe how pretty these are not so dark... I too love the chocolate this is perfect.. will try your recipe next time....

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  3. Lisa: YUM! With the lime sugar and dipping these crunchy treats in a Mexican Chocolate Sauce - sinfully delish! Now I'm going to be thinking of these until I make them. Can't wait to try these churros. =)

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  4. Wow, Lisa...these look WONDERFUL!! We had churros w/choc sauce for our amuse bouche at Aureole in NY last year, but lime sugar? Even better...great job!

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  5. Oh how I love churros! LOVE the idea of lime sugar on them. :)

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  6. I want your job-- client lunches in the Bay Area-- pretty hard to beat! Adding the lime to the sugar was a marvelous idea. I would have a hard time eating just one of those.

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  7. It's been so long since I visited Jack London Square, I've not seen the new renovations but heard that it has been good.
    Your lime photos here are wonderful, as are these churros! I've got a bag of limes on the counter and a little girl who would go nuts for these!!! Congrats on a well deserved top 9!!!

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  8. Oh my gosh Lisa - these look HEAVENLY! I want them right.now. :) Can you fedex me a few? Just kidding. Excellent photos. Love it.

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  9. Oh, these churros look heavenly. I seriously need to get over my fear of frying so I can make them.

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  10. The lime sugar sounds amazing! This is a twist on churros I have to try.

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  11. These sound amazing! I can only imagine how wonderful they would be warm, crunchy with the hint of lime and dipped in chocolate...heavenly! Congrats on the Top 9! Well deserved :)!

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  12. OMG how did I miss this post?!? I love churros but with the addition of lime sugar....never heard! I can just imagine how amazing these are.
    On a different note, I'm glad you got to eat in my dear Oakland! We do have some amazing restaurants that more than outwin on sf ones in my opinion!

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  13. Nice article, thanks for the information.

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