Tortas fritas are discs of plain dough, made with flour, a little fat, salt and warm water, fried until they puff and blister, then dusted with sugar or eaten plain. They have one of the most charming rules in South American cooking: in Uruguay you make them when it rains. Older tellings say the rainwater itself once went into the dough. Today the custom survives as a reflex, and a gray sky still sends plenty of Uruguayans to the flour jar and the kettle for mate.

They are also sold from carts at beaches, fairs and roadsides, and they make an ideal snack for a wet qualifying session anywhere in the world. The dough takes ten minutes, rests for half an hour and fries in batches, so they arrive in waves, which suits a session that also tends to arrive in waves.

The dough

Ingredients

• 4 cups (500 g) all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 tablespoons (40 g) lard or butter
• 1 cup (240 ml) warm water
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

Frying and sugar

Ingredients

• about 4 cups (1 liter) vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar

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