Even though my main specialty is cooking Moorish food, I pretty much like anything Mediterranean, so today I’m giving you the recipe for Mojo. No, not Austin Power’s mojo – groovy baby! – but a green sauce made from loads of parsley, that tastes great with (almost) anything. There’s also a red variety, great tasting too, but I’ll keep that one for another day.
Mojo is standard staple on La Gomera, they have in in restaurants on the table like you find ketchup elsewhere. Seems like they can’t live without it, and I can see why, as it is not only delicious but very healthy too.
I got this recipe from a local from La Gomera, who had invited me to a BBQ at this little finca in the middle of a banana tree plantation! He had prepared all the food and the Mojo, and while we were eating, we ran out of Mojo. So he stood up to prepare some new! Of course I was following every move he made to get to know this recipe! He went to a lemon tree and picked a lemon, he grabbed a handfull of fresh parsley and went into his kitchen. Here’s how he made it:
Ingredients:
-Loads of parsley (Can’t tell you exactly how much. Just loads, 4 bunches or so.) without the hard stalks (smaller stalks don’t matter). Make sure you get flat-leaved parsley and not the curly stuff because the curly one is bitter.
-Juice of 1 Lemon (if it’s a small one. Make it 1/2 lemon if it’s large)
-1 Small dried chili pepper
-1/2 Teaspoon Grounded cumin
-2 Cloves of garlic
-Salt
-Good quality extra virgin olive oil
Take a blender and put in the lemon juice, the salt, the cumin, the chili pepper and the garlic. Blend until fine. Than add some olive oil and all the parsley. Blend again until the parsley is fine. Then add more olive oil until you get a thick sauce, with the consistency of pesto. Taste. Add more salt, lemon, salt or cumin to taste.
(The traditional way of making Mojo involves a mortar and lots of grinding. It does affect the taste in a positive way, but you have to be really, really in the mood for half an hour of grinding… I prefer the 21st century method.)
Yummmmm! Keeps in the fridge for about a week.
Tastes really good with grilled veg, seafood and….Papas Arrugadas!
Now that is a real simple way to prepare delicous poatoes. Ow, what the heck, I’ll give you that recipe too:
Ingredients:
-Potatoes, preferably not too big and young, washed and brushed
-500 gr. course sea salt
Put potatoes in a pan, cover with water and add 500 gr salt. Yes’ I’m not exaggerating here! Boil until the water is almost evaporated. Then drain the potatoes, give them a very quick rinse and let them dry. They end up a bit wrinkeled, hence the name, and have a salty skin and a sweet taste in the inside…
That’s it for today, now I’m hungry…. 
