Tequeños
Sticks of white cheese wrapped with a homemade crunchy & slightly sweet dough then fried.
Breakfast Dinner Supper
Ingredients:
- Flour: Standard all-purpose flour works best here.
- Salt: I prefer kosher or sea salt. If you only have table salt handy, I recommend reducing the amount to half.
- Baking powder: Make sure it’s not expired or too old
- Water
- Oil: Vegetable or canola oil – or any light-tasting oil you prefer.
- Milk: I like to use whole milk for cooking and baking, but you can use any milk you have handy.
- Sugar: Brown sugar — either light or dark brown sugar works.
- Fresh white cheese for frying — You can find fresh white cheese for frying at Walmart in the refrigerated section. It’s called Tropical queso de freir.
- Vegetable oil for frying
- For the Spicy Pink Sauce, you’ll need:
Mayonnaise ( I used eggless mayo ), ketchup, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, brandy or rum, and cayenne pepper.
Instructions for Preparation:
- Prepare The Dough. Place the flour, salt, and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attachment. Mix to combine.
- Add water, vegetable oil, milk, and brown sugar and mix the dough for 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Press dough into a disc, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Unwrap dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Knead with your hands until the dough is very smooth and elastic, about 2 -3 minutes. Add more flour over the surface, if necessary, and roll out into a 12 x 15-inch rectangle 1/8-inch thick. Using a knife, or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1-inch wide strips lengthwise to end up with 12 strips.
- Form the Tequeños. Cut the cheese block into 6 equal pieces, and then cut each piece in half lengthwise; you end up with 12 cheese sticks.
- Take one strip of dough and cover one of the ends of one cheese stick with dough. Continue to wrap dough around the stick in a spiral fashion, overlapping the edges until you reach the other end. Cover the other end with dough and pinch edges close to seal fully. The cheese has to be completely covered with dough. Repeat with remaining cheese sticks.
- Fry. Add 2-inches of oil to a skillet. Heat oil to 350°F over medium heat. When the oil is hot, cook the tequeños in batches, 2 -3 at a time, turning them until all sides are golden brown. Remove tequeños to a plate lined with paper towels. Let cool for 1 minute, and serve immediately with guasacasa, garlic sauce, and/or spicy pink sauce.
- Make the Pink Sauce (Salsa Rosada). Mix with a fork, or wire whisk, all the sauce ingredients until smooth and creamy. If you like a sauce with more bite, add more cayenne pepper. This sauce will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.