Mojo Picon, Canarian Red Chile Sauce
Mojo picon is the red, spicy half of the pair of sauces that dress nearly everything in the Canary Islands, from wrinkled salt potatoes to grilled vegetables. The classic is built on a small dried local pepper, garlic, cumin, and vinegar, thickened and carried by a generous stream of oil. This version keeps every bit of the flavor and drops the oil, leaning on a spoonful of almond and a soft boiled potato to give the sauce the body it needs to coat a fork. Guajillo stands in for the Canarian pepper, which is hard to find off the islands, and the result is smoky, garlicky, and hot. It keeps a week in the fridge and improves for the first three days.
Ingredients
- 2 wholes Guajillo, stemmed, seeded, torn
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 1 tsp Cumin seed
- 1 tsp Smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp Almonds, blanched
- 1 whole Potatoes, small, boiled soft
- 2 tbsp Red wine vinegar
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne
- 1/4 tsp Black peppercorns, ground
Method
- Toast the torn guajillo in a dry pan for 20 seconds a side, just until it smells nutty, then cover with hot water and soak 15 minutes. A quick toast wakes the chile's oils, and the soak softens the leathery flesh so it blends smooth. The ancho-family flavor here stands in for the Canarian pepper, since the local varieties rarely travel.
- Toast the cumin seed in the same dry pan until fragrant, then grind it. Whole seed toasted this way carries far more depth than pre-ground cumin, which is most of the backbone of any mojo.
- Blend the soaked chile flesh, garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, almonds, the boiled potato, vinegar, cayenne, and pepper with a few tablespoons of the soaking water until pourable. A real mojo is emulsified with oil; here the almond and soft potato give it that same clinging body with none of the fat.
- Loosen with a little more soaking water to the texture you want and let it rest at least 30 minutes before serving. Resting mellows the raw garlic and lets the chile deepen, so the sauce tastes rounder than it did the moment it came off the blender.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 45 calories, 1 g protein, 1 g fiber, 25 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
