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.