Mojo Picón Canario

Mojo picón is Canarian, a raw red sauce of dried pepper, garlic, cumin, chile, vinegar and olive oil. What separates it from the islands' mojo verde is not colour alone. The dried pepper gives it an earthy sweetness, the guindilla supplies the bite, and the cumin makes the bowl smell unmistakably of Canarias. Spoon it over papas arrugadas, the islands' salt-wrinkled potatoes, grilled fish or meat.

The mortar decides this one. Grind the cumin with coarse salt, crush in the garlic and guindilla, then pound the softened pepper until it becomes a rough red paste. Only then do the vinegar and oil go in. Pounding binds the ingredients without whipping air through them, so the mojo stays dark, coarse and able to grip a potato. A blender makes it smooth and orange. Edible, yes. The same sauce, no.

If pimienta palmera is beyond your reach, use dried ñoras with one guindilla. The result is sweeter and a little less earthy, but it keeps the proper balance of pepper, heat and vinegar. No hace falta haber pisado España. My notebook's margin says to add the oil in several turns, not one flood. Do that, give the sauce half an hour to settle, and it comes out.