It is quite common in the Nordic to venture south to Spain on vacation. They even have specific terms for these trips “Sydentur”. Directly translated that would be something like “South trip”. So I was quite old when I went on my first one, well into my twenties and yet my maiden voyage there felt quite exotic. Coming from a place where growing potatoes and cabbages is a victory, being able to see avocados and oranges growing effortlessly on trees was quite an experience.

Everything was a discovery and even the cheap tourist restaurants were able to provide me with big culinary experiences. Those days are long gone after having been on few of these trips, now I cannot avoid seeing the cheapness and being annoyed over signs and menus in Scandinavian languages. I wish they would try to keep it more authentic but I guess I am not the typical tourist.

So I came home from my first trip from Tenerife with a cookbook in my luggage and few things on my list I wanted to experiment. One of them was a certain green sauce called Mojo Verde that they served with papas arraguas or what is often called wrinkled potatoes. It is really just potatoes cooked in a lot of salt making the peel all wrinkled and delicious. This sauce however works great as well with fish and as a dipping sauce for baked chorizo. If you stay tuned I might post how you bake chorizo to perfection. Because it really isn’t as simple as one would think (or it wasn’t for me).

Mojo Verde

Mojo Verde

3/4 bunch of coriander (approx 50 g)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 green chilies (remove seeds)
1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 dl olive oil
2/3 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin

Mix all except oil in a food processor and try to get it chopped as finely as possible. Gradually add the oil as the ingredients are chopped and mixed. Alternatively, use a hand blender but then you need to add all at once to get it chopped. You get a purer green color by using a food processor. The one seen here was made with a hand mixer and is a bit more cloudy.

Mojo Verde og Chorizo