A celebration of Europe #26 – Spain

Boarding the train we have a long journey west through Italy and France to Spain, followed by a ferry trip out into the Atlantic ocean to the Canary Islands where this recipe originates.

Santa Cruz, Sevilla, Spain.

Papas arrugadas, mojo colarado, mojo verde – Wrinkled potatoes with red and green sauces.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Skill level: easy
Serves: 3–4 or more if part of a tapas


Ingredients for the wrinkled potatoes

  • small to medium sized potatoes – whole, washed (but not peeled) – 1kg
  • salt – 2 tbsp

Put the whole washed unpeeled potatoes in a large saucepan, pour in enough water to almost cover and add the salt. Ideally your pan will be large enough for there to be a single layer of potatoes.

Place a sheet of baking paper on top of the potatoes to help keep in the steam. For authenticity you could use a cabbage leaf instead.

Boil until tender.

Remove the paper/cabbage leaf and drain away the water.

Return the saucepan to the heat, tossing occasionally until a salt crust forms on the skins.

Serve immediately with the sauces below.


Ingredients for the red sauce

  • 3 red peppers – roasted and skinned
  • garlic – 3 or 4 fat cloves – chopped
  • 1 red chilli – finely chopped
  • olive oil – 5 tbsp
  • white wine vinegar – 2 tbsp
  • ground cumin
  • s & p

Quarter and de-seed the peppers and put under a hot grill, skin side up, until the skins blacken and blister. Place in a sealed Tupperware until cool and then remove the skins.

You can pound the solid ingredients together in a pestle and mortar and then slowly drizzle in the oil and vinegar, or you can, as we did, place everything in a blender and blitz until smooth(ish).

Taste, season and set aside

Ingredients for the green sauce

  • 1 green pepper – roasted and skinned
  • garlic – 3 or 4 fat cloves – chopped
  • 1 red chilli – finely chopped
  • coriander – bunch
  • olive oil – 5 tbsp
  • white wine vinegar – 2 tbsp
  • ground cumin
  • s & p

Same process as above. Roast the pepper (obviously do this at the same time as the red ones) and blend all the ingredients together to a smooth(ish) sauce.

Serve the potatoes with sauces. Delicious as is, or as part of a tapas.

Verdict: Lovely tender salty potatoes with sweet, sour, piquant sauces. A favourite here at Yumblog Villas.

Drink: Czech for him, Belgian for her, Lychee Rubicon for child.

Entertainment: Being fans of ‘The Great British Bakeoff’ we thought we’d try its sister programme ‘The Great Pottery Throw Down’. Two episodes in and everyone is already hooked. So much clay, so many tears. And it’s hosted by Sister Michael off ‘Derry Girls’.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: