Mojo Sauce
This shows up most frequently on top of the wrinkled potatoes tapas plate (Papas Arrugadas) at all bars and restaurants on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. The potatoes are boiled in well-salted water – which is supposed to give the appearance. So far, I find it just makes them a little bit salty...which is nice, so no problem. Sometimes they would arrive dusted with salt – as if they had been rolled in a plate of salt while wet – like a chocolate truffle in cocoa powder. The first time we saw these – sitting in an appealing earthenware dish on the countertop of a bar/restaurant in the interior, we enquired what they were with evident interest – the potatoes are small, so they looked from a distance like meatballs, or some cookie/cake, or perhaps truffles or something. Our interest was met with such approval that we were handed one each – and a very, very salty potato it was indeed. With no utensils to make smaller pieces, no plate to shuffle the food around on (or under) made for a bit of a chore to muscle through – since, holding a cooked potato with the fingers, it is always about to fall apart, it makes it necessary to consume the thing in three slightly gaggy bites. Fortunately for me, another pal, whose Spanish is one half step behind mine asked what the exotic item actually was, I got to hand mine off to him – and under the watchful eye of the barkeep, he was left to consume it – with theatrics of enjoyment.
So the sauce, that would have made the whole thing work out, can be approximated quite closely in aabout five minutes flat with the aid of a Cuisinart.
Grab one or two jars of the roasted red peppers
1 or 2 cloves of garlic (you could give these a quick chop, but not necessary)
bit of white wine vinegar (1 Tbsp?)
a few dollops of olive oil, though I am not certain that goes in the real thing
a few sprinkles of cumin and coriander, ground
about a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds
whir away, and salt as you wish.
Don’t let on how easy it is.
I find it interesting, the North African spices – The Canary Islands are essentially Spanish islands on what should by all rights be either independant or African turf – so one of the items held up as a most typical island dish is a sauce made up of both Spanish and North African parts – funny.
Aside from on top of the potatoes, the sauce is used for many things – I would imagine it going well on grilled or broiled fish (haddock?) and grilled or roast chicken perhaps, though that is just a factor of the everything goes with chicken phenomenon. I saw much more eating of pig, sheep and goat there than chicken.
