Papas Arrugadas Con Mojo (Wrinkled Potatoes With Sauce)

Here we are on Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, the archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean. (Early explorers discovered a great many dogs on the islands, hence the name from the Latin canis, meaning dog). Originally inhabited by Berberlike peoples, known as Guanches.

We are sitting in the cave restaurant Tagoror, Barranco de Guayadeque, having “papas arrugadas con mojo”. The Barranco de Guayadeque is a valley stretching from Gran Canaria’s coast into the heart of the island. Within this valley there are hundreds of old Guanche caves and burial chambers. The traditional Guanche way of cooking potatoes was in sea water, they say.

Small sized potatoes are nowadays served at restaurants, eaten with its skin and dipped in Mojos. Sauces come in many colors and tastes. The most well known and most common ones are the mojo picante (spicy red mojo) and the mojo verde (coriander green mojo).

Trying to recall a memory from summer 1998 ….

INGREDIENTS:
Serves 4

* ½ – 1 kg (500 g-1000 g) small new potatoes
* 2 dl (200 ml) sea salt/liter water

SAUCE:
* 4 – 5 cloves garlic
* 1 red bell paprika
* 2 1/3 dl (230 ml) olive oil
* 1 teaspoon cumin, crushed
* 3/4 dl (75 ml) lemon juice
* 2 -3 tablespoons tomato purée
* cayenne pepper

METHOD:
1. Wash the potatoes well.
2. Put salt and water into a saucepan
3. Boil potatoes in the salted water, with the lid ajar, until almost all the water has evaporated.
4. Pour off remaining water.
5. Put the saucepan with the potatoes back on low heat again.
6. Drain and steam dry, shaking the saucepan (a white salt layer should form on the potatoes, they should be soft and slightly wrinkled).

THE SAUCE:
1. Peel and chop garlic cloves.
2. Deseed paprika and cut it in small pieces.
3. Fry garlic and parika in oil together with cumin.
4. Run it in a blender to make a thick purée.
5. Continue blending, adding oil and lemon juice.
6. Taste with tomato purée and cayenne pepper.

For a thinner sauce, add water. The sauce is rather hot. For a hotter sauce, add fresh and finely chopped chili pepper. Serve with slices of goat´s cheese to temper the hotness.