Traditional Restaurants Tenerife - 'MOJO'

Having lived in Tenerife for almost 24 years now, I have eaten in many a local restaurant.

In years gone by, most if not all the local traditional restaurants served a basket of crusty

bread with a selection of dips for you to enjoy whilst ordering your meal. These dips

typically included:- Alioli, a garlic mayonnaise dip, Mojo Verde, (pronounced mok-ho) 

a dip made with olive oil, vinegar, garlic and coriander (or cilantro) and Mojo Rojo,

also a dip with an olive oil, vinegar and garlic base but with chilli (chile or chili) added to

give a hot spicy flavour. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer restaurants serve these as a matter

of course but you can generally ask for them to be served as a starter.

There doesn't seem to be any fixed recipe for Mojo Rojo or Mojo Verde as every

restaurant has their own versions but all I must say are delicious.

Some additions to the basic dips that I have come across are avocado included in Mojo

Verde and sweet red pepper added to Mojo Rojo, each of these ingredients gives the

dip more body, more of a creamy consistency.

I am calling these Mojos dips, but they work equally as well as sauces and marinades.

I have used Mojo Rojo for example as a marinade for pork and chicken which has then

been simply grilled. Mojo Rojo is a type of chilli sauce really so it works well over chicken

and pork and is delicious with french fries or chips. Mojo Verde on the other hand is

particularly good over any white grilled fish and tuna.

I personally like a hot chili red Mojo and I do like to add sweet red pepper to it also as I

prefer the creamier texture, the good thing about Mojo sauces is that once you have the

basic ingredients you can tailor the flavour and texture to your personal taste.

Everyone should add Mojo Rojo to their list of chilli recipes whether you use it as a chilli

dip, chilli marinade or chilli sauce recipe.

Please check out the 'Mojos' tab for some basic mojo sauce / dip recipes.