Green Tea and Adzuki Bean Churros

Green Tea and Adzuki Bean Dips

I was craving some churros, that Spanish fried pastry, today. Too bad for me, because I was too lazy to step out of the house and get myself those too-oily commercially sold ones and besides, it's really your luck on the draw. Sometimes you'd get tasty churros, sometimes you don't. Most oftentimes, I'm a loser at churros buying!

So, to save me the aggro, I decided to just make some at home myself. Never made these babies before, so it was all going to be experimental (what's new?). Since I was experimenting anyway, I thought, why not make different flavored churros - perhaps even Asian-inspired churros? Oh, I'm grateful to the Spanish for creating these wonderful munchies, alright, but honestly..., it's time they went global.

I wanted to flavour the churros with green tea, and what goes best with that? Adzuki beans, which is really the technical name for those cute, little, maroon-red colored beans (not to be confused with the red kidney beans used in say, some Mexican dishes). And so the Adzuki Bean~White Chocolate Dip idea was hatched. Then it occured to me, why I don't I make Adzuki bean churros as well? The best dip to go with those would be a Green Tea~White Chocolate Dip! Hell, opposing flavors of churros and dips. How cool would that turn out to be? (Tres cool, she says, when everything was done and ready!)

My rows and rows of Churros. They reminded me of little soldiers!

Whoever I was going to serve these to may just want to defy my plan and dip their green tea churros in the green tea dip and their adzuki bean churros in its corresponding dip. Well, I say that's ok with me. I do believe in freedom of expression and all that palava; people are allowed to do what they want as long as it's not hurtful (at least, that's the philosophy in my Red Kitchen). Before I forget, there are two routes to cooking these churros. One is to pipe them into a pan of hot oil directly after mixing everything, but I found that the churros wouldn't hold their shape well and would go all curly-wurly. Since I like mine straight (isn't this telling? *grins*), I piped the churros onto greaseproof paper and froze them first before peeling them off to fry. To me, they looked prettier, and yes, easier to hold and dip when they're fairly straight.

The bean paste that I used was ready made and can be store-bought. However, if you're feeling particularly enthusiastic and want to make your own paste, here's a good recipe by Garrett of Vanilla Garlic. To conclude, the churros were lovely and crispy and tasted distinctly of their two different flavours. The white chocolate undertones in the two dips made people just want to dip endlessly, but the white chocolate didn't overpower the two flavors, which was great.

The Adzuki bean churros also puffed up a bit more upon frying and I wasn't sure if that was something to do with the chemical reaction caused by the bean content. But I'm not going to ponder on this further because what I'd really like to do now is give you the recipe!

Green Tea and Adzuki Bean Churros
Ingredients:
For the churros
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 tablespoons matcha powder
2 tablespoons Adzuki bean paste
icing sugar, to dust

For the dips:
100 grams white chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon matcha powder
2 tablespoons Adzuki bean paste

Method:

1. For the churros, sift the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

2. Then boil the water and butter in a saucepan. Lower the heat, and add the flour mixture. Stir until the mixture becomes a dough.

3. Add eggs one at a time and whisk until smooth and slightly cooled.

4. Divide the dough mixture into two portions – to one, add the matcha powder and whisk to incorporate. To the other, add the Adzuki bean paste and also whisk until blended.

5. Pipe churros (using a star tip) onto greaseproof paper and freeze for at least 2 hours.

6. Before serving, heat oil and fry the churros until golden and crispy. Drain excess oil by placing the churros on a kitchen towel, then dust with icing sugar.

7. For the dips, melt the butter and white chocolate in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl placed over boiling water.

8. In another pan, add the cornstarch and pour the cream slowly. Mix to ensure that no lumps are formed. Then add the condensed milk and melted chocolate. Cook until mixture becomes thick and smooth, remembering to stir constantly. If it starts to burn at the bottom of the pan, just strain the mixture at the end to get the clumpy bits out.

9. Divide the thick chocolate dip mixture into two equal portions. Into one, whisk in the matcha powder. Into the other, whisk in the Adzuki bean paste.

10. Serve both dips with the two complementarily-flavored churros.