Mojo mojo and more mojo!

[Adrian]

After a short trip to the Canary Islands, specifically El Hierro, I thought you'ld like to taste some of the best sauces there are for fish: Mojo. There are three types of Mojo (pronounced "moho" with the "o"s as in "molest".): Mojo Picon - spicy mojo, Mojo de Perejil - parsley mojo, and Mojo de Cilantro - coriander mojo.

Here ¡s a recipie I managed to find:

Mojo Picon:

Preparation time: 15 minutes.
Approx for 12 people

Ingredients:

2 pieces of garlic (not the whole head)
2 hot peppers
half a red pepper - optional
2 spoonfuls of vinager
2 spoonfuls of paprika
150 CL olive oil
some cumin (optional)
cooking salt - (to taste, always less than one thinks)

Preparation:

Grind the garlic with half the salt until we get a perfect mass. Then add the peppers, the cumin, the paprika in a mortar. We then little by little we add the olive oil and the vinegar, without ceasing to grind. One can add another hot pepper for more spicyness if you wish.

Remember to clean the peppers well, taking out all the seeds and the inner veins as well and cut them into small pieces before mashing.

Some people say to add the vinegar only if you are going to eat the mojo soon, otherwise it will oxidize the sauce. Otherwise, keep it in the fridge and add just before use. If the sauce is too thin, we can thicken it with breadcrumb as we mash it in the mortar.

This goes well with grilled meats as well as fish.

The process for Mojo de Cilantro (Coriander Mojo) is pretty much the same except that you use a bunch of fresh Coriander and instead of the hot peppers use two green peppers. (No paprika and no red pepper is used).

This is used for fried and grilled fish.

For the Parsley Mojo just use parsley instead of the peppers and the paprika.

Remember to vary the amount of ingredients. Some advocate using onions instead of garlic, and others use more garlic than I've indicated. It's good to experiment. It's one of those recipies that differs from family to family.

Here's a picture of a dish we had with caballa (sorry, don't know the name in English, it's a pelagic), boiled in Mojo Picon, and accompanied with sweet potatoe. Needless to say it was absolutely delicious!

[josedesucre]

Caballa is a small king fish, I think.

[island_sands]

Adrian i think it's mackerel. hmmmm looks fantastic! Nadim (Nesim;s brother) gave me some fresh kingfish that he speared the other night.. it was sooo delicious.

will have to try that sauce

How was the vis in El Hierro?

[Adrian]

The average was around 30 meters, the worst day it went down to 20! I couldn't complain. The day after we left there though there were some terrible rainstorms that destroyed roads some houses and closed the airport. I'll be going back for sure. The whole feeling of the island was the typical laid back pace of life found in the tropics. One disconects completely, especially when the village we stayed at had only 300 inhabitants.

[Spaniard]

Caballa is indeed mackerel very commonly prepared in escabeche in the mediterranean.

[Adrian]

Here are a couple of red and green mojo recipie links I found in English:

Mojo Verde Recipe - DiscoverLanzarote.com (Green Mojo)
Mojo Rojo Recipe - DiscoverLanzarote.com (Red Mojo)

As you'll see, there are some differences compared to the previous formulas.

[podge]

Had your parsley mojo with a couple of Dover Soul fillets last night and I must say it was spot on.
I was going to take a photo of the finished dish but as the rest of the family were hovering over MY plate I didn’t dare leave the kitchen to get the camera.

[deep thinker]

Sounds good, goin hunting tomorrow for some fresh yellow tail and maybe a few lobster, will try your recipe soon after that then.

[covert]

DT I hope you werent refering to our "super trip" this past weekend

[deep thinker]

Hmm, what did my parents say about dont count your chickens before they hatch. Lets just put in the past what do you say

[covert]

agreed..... I need to go dive again there is nothing like the smell of neoprene early in the morning