Souschef AI

Global Kitchen

AI

Spanish · snack

Mojo Picón Canario — The Canary Islands' Fiery Red Sauce

#spanish#canarian#sauce#condiment#vegan

15m

Total time

6

Servings

kcal

easy

Difficulty

Jul 7, 2026

INGREDIENTS.

6
Produce
  • 4 whole dried ñora peppers (or guindilla peppers)
  • 5 whole garlic cloves
Spice
  • 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika (pimentón de la Vera)
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds (whole)
  • 0.3 tsp cayenne or fresh red chili (optional, for extra heat)
Pantry
  • 2 slices stale bread, torn into pieces
  • 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 80 ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp coarse sea salt

THE METHOD.

tap to check off

0/7 done

Related · You might also cook

Keep going.

Croquetas de Sepia con Tinta: Spain's Jet-Black Squid Ink Croquettes
spanishhard

Croquetas de Sepia con Tinta: Spain's Jet-Black Squid Ink Croquettes

These are the croquetas that stop the table. The moment you set down a plate of jet-black croquetas — no other colour, just coal — conversation pauses. The first bite does the rest: a crust that shatters cleanly, then warm, silk-smooth béchamel loaded with the taste of the deep sea. This is croquetas de sepia con tinta, and they belong to the Cantabrian coast, where cuttlefish (sepia) has always been celebrated in its own ink. The recipe has three distinct stages and patience requirements that are genuinely non-negotiable. First, a slow sofrito — onion cooked until almost melting, a full 20 minutes, sweetening from the inside out. Then the stiff ink béchamel, which is nothing like the sauce you pour over pasta. This is thick, glossy, and stiff enough to hold a shape cold. Then the chill: four hours minimum, overnight if at all possible. No shortcuts here. Warm filling means burst croquetas, and burst croquetas mean a sad fryer and a sadder cook. If you do all of this — and you will — the reward is extraordinary. A plate of dramatically black croquetas against white china, with a small bowl of saffron aioli alongside, is one of the great moments of Spanish bar food. Make these and people will ask for the recipe.

90 min 4
Read
Ensalada Rusa Española: Spain's Essential Tuna Potato Salad
spanisheasy

Ensalada Rusa Española: Spain's Essential Tuna Potato Salad

Walk into any tapas bar in Spain — Madrid, Seville, Barcelona — and you will almost certainly find a small earthenware dish of ensaladilla rusa waiting on the counter. Creamy, set, scoopable, and deeply savory, it is one of those dishes that looks deceptively simple and rewards anyone who makes it properly at home. The name means 'little Russian salad,' a nod to the Olivier salad created in 1860s Moscow that eventually reached Spain and was quietly transformed. The extravagant game meats and seafood of the Russian original gave way to pantry staples, and canned tuna — one of Spain's most beloved ingredients — became the defining feature. What emerged is a dish distinctly Spanish in character: generous with mayonnaise, deeply flavored with good olive oil tuna, and built for the table, not the fridge door. The keys to getting it right: cook the vegetables separately so nothing is over- or underdone, let everything go fully cold before the mayo goes in, cut everything to a uniform small dice so each forkful carries all the flavors, and — critically — give it time. A few hours minimum, overnight if you can. The patience pays off in a salad that tastes like it came from a real tapas kitchen.

45 min 6
Read
Boquerones en Aceite con Olivas — Acid-Cured Anchovies the Right Way
spanisheasy

Boquerones en Aceite con Olivas — Acid-Cured Anchovies the Right Way

Boquerones en aceite con olivas is one of the great simplest things in Spanish food — fresh anchovies acid-cured in vinegar, then drained, dried, and dressed in good olive oil with raw garlic, flat-leaf parsley, and green olives alongside. It is quintessentially Andalusian, rooted in the coastal markets of Málaga where European anchovies are caught fresh in spring and summer and have been cured this way long before refrigeration existed. A word on what you are making: this is not raw fish. The vinegar denatures the proteins completely — turning the flesh white and opaque, just as heat would — through a process called acid denaturation. The result occupies its own sensory space: firmer than sashimi, softer than heat-cooked fish, clean and briny and bright rather than fishy. It has absolutely nothing to do with the brown, salt-cured anchovies in a tin. Two things make or break this dish. First, food safety: fresh anchovies must be frozen at −20°C / −4°F for at least 24 hours before you cure them. This eliminates anisakis, a parasitic worm found in wild anchovies that survives acid-curing. This is not optional, and it is not covered by refrigerating the fish overnight. Commercially frozen anchovies (most of what you will find outside coastal Spain) are already frozen to the required temperature; confirm with your fishmonger if buying something labeled 'fresh.' Second, the olive oil: after the vinegar is washed away, the fillets absorb the dressing directly. A mediocre oil will dominate the delicate fish. Use the best Spanish extra virgin olive oil you can find. Active prep is about 30 minutes. Then the fillets cure unattended in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 hours. The dish can be made the morning of and held in its olive oil dressing, covered, in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

30 min 4
Read
Cazuela de Esparragos Trigueros — Andalusian Wild Asparagus with Poached Eggs
spanisheasy

Cazuela de Esparragos Trigueros — Andalusian Wild Asparagus with Poached Eggs

Cazuela de Esparragos Trigueros is one of those deeply seasonal Andalusian dishes that feels like spring itself. Every March through May, the roadside verges and irrigation ditches of Cadiz, Sevilla, and Cordoba sprout thin, intensely bitter esparragos trigueros — wild asparagus that the locals have been foraging and cooking for centuries. The technique belongs to the esparragado family: vegetables cooked in olive oil with a garlic-bread-paprika picada whose roots trace back to Al-Andalus and the Moorish cooks who brought cumin and smoked spices into the southern Spanish kitchen. The picada is the heart of everything. Garlic cloves and a slice of stale bread are fried in olive oil until golden, then pounded in a mortar with pimenton de la Vera, cumin seeds, and a splash of sherry vinegar — producing a rough, fragrant paste that thickens the sauce without flour, cream, or cornstarch. The bread soaks up the oil and asparagus juices and releases them back through the dish, creating a body that is simultaneously rustic and complex. Resist the temptation to use a blender: the mortar leaves textured chunks that give the finished dish its character. The asparagus goes in cut, not whole, so every piece absorbs the sauce on all sides. Then the eggs — one per person — are broken directly into the cazuela and cooked covered until the whites set and the yolks stay molten. When they break at the table, they enrich everything further. Served straight from the earthenware dish, in the middle of the table, with good bread alongside.

40 min 4
Read