Guest Recipe: Thomas's '66 Cheese & Chorizo Footballs

Besides the cheese and pineapple hedgehog, there was one other snack which had to be served at every party in the 1970s and 80s – the Cheesey Football. These savoury snacks had a crispened wafer shell around a strangely-salty and artificial tasting ‘allegedly-cheese’ centre.

The distant memory of these strange orbs serves as inspiration for these far more sophisticated and infinitely better Cheese and Chorizo Footballs – a sort of Spanish Croquette that is given a twist for the ultimate match day snack. A cinch to make, producing that magical ’66 number of servings, these footballs will delight and provide comfort whatever the result come the final whistle.

• Prep Time: 45 min + overnight resting
• Cook Time: 3 min
• Total Time: 48 min

Serves: 66 footballs

Category: Lunch,Dinner

Ingredients

For the dough
• 165g plain flour
• 165g unsalted butter
• 1 litre milk
• ½ white onion – diced
• Generous pinch salt, pepper and ground nutmeg
• 150 chorizo slices, cut into small pieces
• 125g mature cheddar cheese – grated

For the coating

• 360g Tangy Cheese Doritos
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• 125g plain flour
• 4 eggs
• Oil for frying

Method

1. Pop the milk into a large pan to warm over a low heat.
2. Melt the butter in another large pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and fry until translucent and soft. Add the plain flour and stir to form a frothy paste. Turn down the heat to low and continue to stir for up to 5 minutes.
3. Gradually add the warmed milk to the flour paste in four or five doses. Stir with a balloon whisk each time to incorporate all of the milk resulting in a smooth, thick paste. Continue to stir for a further 5-8 minutes, making sure that it doesn’t stick to the pan. You want your paste to be thick and cleanly coming away from the sides of the pan as you stir.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the seasoning, chorizo and grated cheese. Pour the mixture into a swiss roll tin and smooth out with a spatula. Take a sheet of greaseproof paper and scrunch it up under a running cold tap to dampen it. Squeeze out the water and press it down over the top before wrapping the tin in foil. The paper will prevent a skin forming over the dough.
5. Allow to cool on the side before popping into the fridge and leaving to rest overnight.
6. To make the footballs, remove the dough from the fridge. Use a knife to split it evenly 10 by 6 to make 66 equal sized squares. Roll each square in your hands to form a ball, placing to one side.
7. Blitz up 360g of Tangy Cheese Doritos in a food processor with the smoked paprika. You want them to resemble coarsely ground sand. Pop the crumbs into a large bowl. Pop the flour into another bowl and whisk the eggs into a third. You now want to dunk each ball in the egg before coating in the flour. Dip the ball back into the egg mix before rolling in the Dorito crumbs to coat. Place to one side on a tray while you repeat with all the balls.
8. Preheat a deep fat fryer to 180C. Fry the balls in batches of around 8 being careful not to crowd the pan. Remove from the fryer after around 3 minutes by which time the balls should be golden brown and crisp. Drain on some kitchen paper to remove excess grease.
9. Serve your footballs with any dips of your liking – salsa and sour cream and chive work well

Tom Frizell-Shackley is a food writer, recipe developer and freelance PR consultant, based in the North of England. He lives with his partner, son and three spaniels. Since 2019, he has published recipes and kitchen tips for his Kitchen Notes food blog.