Orellas de Entroido

The story

Orellas, ears, are the fried pastry of the Entroido, the Galician Carnival, and take their name from their shape, which recalls a pig's ear; some Galicians call them orellas de frade, monk's ears. Directo al Paladar describes the dough as the same base as filloas, flour, eggs and milk, with butter or lard worked in, and the Turismo de Galicia blog adds anise and lemon or orange zest. The dough is rolled as thin as possible so it fries crisp without soaking up oil, cut into rectangles or triangles, and pressed with a fork in the hot oil so it ripples and folds. The tourism blog calls them the kind of sweet you start eating and cannot stop. The Entroido is celebrated in more than 170 Galician villages, some with records going back to the eighteenth century, in the days around Ash Wednesday. In 2027 the jueves lardero, the Thursday before Carnival Sunday, falls on February 4, and Shrove Tuesday on February 9. Fry the orellas on the day you serve them, and set out coffee or a small glass of anise alongside.