Rachel Khoo: Chorizo and prawn ‘coxinhas’

Here’s my little homage to the World Cup, the perfect Brazilian-inspired finger food to enjoy while watching the matches. The name for these Brazilian street snacks, coxinhas (literally ‘chicken drumsticks’), comes from the traditional poultry filling and the drumstick shape they are formed into. I twisted the tradition here to use chorizo and prawns, one of my favourite surf-and-turf combos.

Chorizo and prawn ‘coxinhas’

Makes 12

200ml chicken stock

200g plain flour

30g soft salted butter

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp rapeseed oil

1 red onion, finely chopped

3 chorizo sausages for cooking (approx 150g), finely chopped

8 peeled tiger prawns, chopped

1 tbsp sherry vinegar

3 spring onions, finely chopped

2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

lemon juice to taste

3 tbsp plain flour

1 egg, beaten

100g fine breadcrumbs

1 litre sunflower oil

Put the stock, flour, butter and sea salt in a medium saucepan. Stir, then beat with a wooden spoon over a medium heat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and comes together into a ball. Set aside to cool slightly.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a large frying pan. Add the red onion and chorizo. Fry for 5 minutes. Add the prawns and sherry vinegar. Fry for a further 2 minutes then put in a bowl and set aside to cool. When cool, add the spring onions, parsley and lemon juice to the mixture and combine.

Set up 3 plates: one with the flour, one with the beaten egg and one with the breadcrumbs. Divide the dough into 12. Roll each one into a ball then press down to make a flat piece 2-3mm thick. Put one piece in your palm, add a heaped tbsp of the mixture to the centre, pull the dough together at the top and squeeze into a point. Roll in the flour, then in the egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Heat the sunflower oil in a medium saucepan to 180C. Fry in batches for 3-4 minutes until golden brown then drain on kitchen paper. Serve warm.