Hot fried dough balls with tomato salsa

An unbelievably moreish beer accompaniment and much more interesting than olives. This recipe makes a lot of dough and hence more dough balls than you think you will need, but don’t be fooled, they will all magically disappear.   

For the dough balls:

250g strong white flour

1x 7g sachet dried yeast

1 tsp caster sugar

180ml warm water

large pinch of salt

olive oil (not extra virgin) for frying

maldon salt

For the salsa:

2-3 large very ripe tomatoes, seeded & roughly chopped

1 handful fresh coriander, leaves & stalks, finely chopped

1 fat clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 red chilli, seeds in or out, finely chopped

½ red onion, finely chopped

2 juicy limes

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Mix the yeast, sugar, salt and flour in a large bowl. Add the water and mix with a knife until it gets thick and lumpy. Start mixing with your hands until you have smooth dough. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for 5 to 10 mins until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover it with cling film and leave to rest in a warm place for 15 minutes.

In a clean bowl, mix the tomatoes, coriander, garlic, onion, chilli and sugar and squeeze in the juice of the 2 limes. Add salt to taste and set aside for 10 minutes to allow the flavours to mingle.

Heat 2cm olive oil in a frying pan. Pinch off small lumps of dough and shape in your hands to make small thin dough discs approx the size of a £2 coin and ½ cm thick.  

Fry the dough balls in batches until golden turning once. The dough balls tend to puff up a little, flatten in the pan with a spatula as you fry so they stay flat. Drain on kitchen paper, sprinkle with the Maldon salt and serve immediately with the salsa.