Ingredients

Step by step

1. First, make the pastry. It’s really simple. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl with a decent pinch of salt. Melt the lard or butter in a pan with 300ml warm water, then pour into the dry ingredients and mix to make a dough. It will be a little sticky, but still kneadable. Cover with clingfilm and leave for 30 minutes.
2. In the meantime, crack on with your filling. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the chorizo for 5-6 minutes until it goes a little charry around the edges. This should be done slowly to begin with, to render the fluorescent orange fat from the meat, and then increase the temperature at the end. Take off the heat and leave for 15 minutes, or until cool enough to touch.
3. When the potato is cool enough to handle, peel it and chop into 1cm cubes. Put in a bowl with the cheeses, spring onions, most of the coriander and the chorizo, along with all of the fat from the pan. Season and give it a decent mix. Shape into 30 balls, roughly the size of a ping pong ball, then squash a little to make more of a rugby ball shape.
4. To make the molotes, make a ball of the dough, about the size of a ping pong ball and dust with a little cornmeal. Roll it into a slightly oval shape between 2 sheets of clingfilm until it’s just a fraction thicker than a tortilla (about 2mm thick) and then remove the top layer of clingflim. Put one of the stuffing balls in the centre and wrap the dough round it, making sure there are no gaps, and crimp the edges to completely seal. Shape-wise, you can do anything from a Cornish pasty shape (which is also the classic empanada), to a more dumpling- style round ball. Both are traditional, so go with what’s easiest for you. Put on a tray dusted lightly in cornmeal while you repeat with the remaining pastry and filling. You should make about 30.
5. Heat the oil in a deep-fat fryer, or a wok with oil only halfway up the sides of the pan, to 190°C or until a piece of bread browns in 25 seconds. Put 5 of the molotes in the oil at a time and fry for 3-4 minutes, turning halfway, until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to drain on kitchen paper. Repeat with the rest of the molotes, in batches.
6. Serve them piping hot, on a bed of shredded lettuce. Drizzle the soured cream and hot sauce over the molotes. Toss the avocado with the lime juice and a little salt and scatter on top with the rest of the coriander.