Mojo is easy to make and any left-overs will keep in the refrigerator for a month and in the freezer for 4 months.  Try this the next time you want to throw a Latin party or serve a tasty seafood dish.  As I’ve mentioned in my last posts on Puerto Rican cuisine, Puerto Ricans do not cook with spicy hot chilies but that shouldn’t stop you from adding chili sauce or chilies to taste to any Puerto Rican recipe.  What you’ll end up with is your version of a great Puerto Rican dish.  Bueno!  Muy delicioso por tu. 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 Anaheim chili chopped (or green bell pepper)
• 4-6 cloves garlic minced
• 2 cups tomatoes diced (15 oz can Roma tomatoes diced and drained)
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar (or lime juice)
• 1/4 cup pimento stuffed green olives chopped
• 1 Tbsp capers rinsed
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 2 lbs fish fillets cut into serving portions
• 3 Tbsp lime juice and 1 tsp minced garlic
• sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• olive oil for frying

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Saute onions and peppers until translucent.
2. Add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes more.
3. Add tomatoes, vinegar, olives, capers and bay leaves.  Simmer 10-12 minutes until somewhat reduced.
4. Mix 3 Tbsp lime juice with 1 tsp of garlic and rub the fish fillets to marinate while sauce reduces.
5. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat, coat bottom of skillet with olive oil.
6. Salt and pepper fish fillets and saute until lightly browned on both sides.
7. Spoon sauce over fish and continue to cook for 6-8 minutes until fish is flaky done.

Unlike Mexican cuisine which is spicy hot from chiles, Puerto Rican cooks do not use hot chiles.  Their dishes are packed with savory seasonings made of fresh vegetables and dried herbs and spices.  Goya brand Sazon is also a seasoning salt mix used regularly in Puerto Rican cooking as a substitute for achiote oil (annatto seeds cooked in olive oil).   Sazon is sort of the lazy cooks alternative to adding the saffron color to a dish.  But that’s for another post…Asopao – Puerto Rican Chicken Soup uses Sofrito, Adobo and achiote.  Mojo Isleño, a delicious sauce for seafood will be posted after that.

Okay, back to Adobo!  One of the key ingredients in a fresh adobo is vinegar.  I thought this unusual because lime juice seems like a better compliment to the garlic, olive oil, oregano and salt/pepper.  However, I was assured by one of my neighbors Myrla Colón that Puerto Ricans prefer the flavor of vinegar over lime.  So there you have it, authentic adobo of Puerto Rico contains vinegar…red-wine vinegar preferably.    I’ve taken a bit of license here and offer lime juice as an option to the vinegar. 

Filipino adobo chicken is simply chicken stewed in garlic, vegetable oil, soy sauce,vinegar and optional fresh ginger.  It’s more Asian than Spanish so don’t confuse adobo chicken of the Philippines with adobo chicken of the Puerto Rican persuasion. 

You can buy dry powdered Adobo with a variety of herbs and spices but an authentic Puerto Rican Adobo made of fresh ingredients is by far superior.   This recipe will be cheap and simple to make since you probably have all the ingredients right in your kitchen now.  Use this recipe to marinate chicken pieces overnight.  They will be positively succulent when grilled the next day. Serve with rice and beans, green salad and a glass of your favorite wine. 

Ingredients:

• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• 3 Tbsp sea salt
• 12 black peppercorns
• 2 Tbsp dried oregano (6 Tbsp fresh oregano)
• 1 Tbsp red-wine vinegar (or 1 Tbsp lime juice)
• 6 Tbsp olive oil
• 8 chicken pieces

Method:

1. In a blender or small food processor, grind garlic, salt, peppercorns and oregano with vinegar.
2. Slowly add olive oil and whirl until emulsified.
3. Wash chicken pieces in cold water and pat dry. Place in zip-lock bag or glass dish with lid.
4. Cover chicken on all sides with Adobo marinade.  Place in refrigerator overnight or at least 3 hours.
5. Remove chicken from refrigerator.  Turn pieces to coat with marinade and allow to come to room temperature.
6. Remove chicken pieces from marinade.  Reserve marinade for basting during cooking.
7. Prepare grill.  Over medium heat, cook chicken pieces for 10-12 minutes covered.   Baste with marinade.  Turn and continue to cook additional 10-12 minutes covered. Baste with marinade.
8. Check for doneness.  Juices should run clear when chicken is pierced with a knife in the thickest part of each piece. 
9. Just before the chicken is really done, move the chicken pieces to a high heat area of the grill.  Brush one last time with marinade and grill just until browned to your liking.

Grilling Tips:

• Only grill chicken over medium heat.  High heat will only char the outside and leave the inside undercooked.  If you can hold your hand over the area for grilling 5-6 seconds, the temperature is just about medium.   
• Finish chicken over high heat to brown and crisp the skin as well as destroy any bacteria. If you can hold your hand over the grill area for 1-2 seconds the temperature is high. 
• Do not brush the cooked chicken with the marinade that the raw chicken sat in.  Any bacteria from the raw chicken will be transferred to the cooked chicken.
• If chicken breasts are really thick they’ll require longer cooking.  You can butterfly the breasts so they will cook at the same rate as the thighs, wings and drum sticks.

In 1979 I attended an IBM Systems Operator Certification program in Tempe, AZ.   At that time reel-to-reel magnetic tape was still being used in systems and cobal was the programming language of choice.  My most memorable experience, besides graduation ceremonies and floating the Mesa River in inner-tubes, was a romantic dinner at an Italian restaurant in Phoenix.  The restaurant was elegant with white linens and silver cutlery, the service was attentive, and the starter dish, Octopus salad, was to die for.  From the first bite, I was in love.  It was not rubbery, nor fishy tasting, but lemony and salty with capers, creamy with olive oil and crunchy with celery.  

I moved to Alaska shortly thereafter, where octopus is fresh caught, blanched to a coral color, and the tenacles are as big as tennis racket handles.   In fact, whole octopi are so large in the Aleutian Islands that one tenacle was enough for 6 servings of this starter dish. 

If you buy a raw tenacle of octopus I highly recommend freezing it for a day or two.  Freezing will tenderize it a bit so that you need only blanch it in boiling salted water just until the skin turns red.  If you overcook it at this stage you’ll need to continue cooking it until it is fork tender, about 45 minutes or longer.  If the octopus is already blanched, strip the skin off the tenacles with a boning knife and slice off the suction cups.   Dice the prepared tenacles and marinate in a traditional Mediterranean medley of lemon juice, olive oil and garlic.  

Ingredients: 

• 2 lb octopus, blanched, cleaned, diced the size of fresh peas
• 4 lemons, 3 juiced and 1 cut into wedges for garnish
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 shallot, chopped finely
• 2 Tbsp capers
• 2 Tbsp red pimento, diced (or 1 small Roma tomato, skinned, seeded and diced)
• black ripe olives to taste
• 2 ribs of celery, diced
• handful of parsley, chopped finely, reserve 1/4 cup for garnish
• 3-4 dashes Tabasco sauce
• sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1 bunch romaine lettuce, chopped coarsely

Method:

1. Mix octopus, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and shallot  in a glass bowl.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
2. Fold-in remaining ingredients except lettuce and garnishes.
3. Place a mound of lettuce on each of 6 cold serving plates, top with 1/2 cup of marinated octopus.
4. Garnish with parsley and lemon wedges.
5. Serve with crackers or toasted crostini.

Notes:

1. If you prefer, leave the skin on the octopus and cook it until fork tender.   Saute chopped onion, garlic, minced chile of choice, add octopus pieces (about 1 inch cubed) and simmer in coconut cream with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with crusty bread, pasta or starchy vegetable such as potatoes, green plantains or yam.   In Polynesia, where the octopi have very skinny tenacles, the raw ingredients of this version are used to fill a pouch made of taro leaves.  The pouch is then wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in an umu (underground oven).  Very tasty!!
2. If you buy a whole octopus for this dish, whole baby pulpos from Mexico, or whole  larger varieties from your fish monger, be sure to include some of the tips of the tenacles for extra crunch, remove the beeks and take extra care cleaning the heads.  The ink from the heads can be harvested to color fresh pasta dough.   Your fish monger will remove the head if you’ve no desire to fool with that bit of the beast.

Culantro

From its Italian influence Sofrito is salty and silky with olive oil, olives and capers.  The typical Latin components include cubanelle peppers (similar to banana peppers…light green Anaheim chilies are a good substitute), aji dulces (small sweet chilies without a kick), pungent oregano with a thick African-violet-like leaf, culantro (recao) and mild cilantro.  The herb culantro is known as recao in Puerto Rico and it has a strong (bitter) cilantro flavor but it is this herb that sets homemade sofrito apart from commercial brands.  Recao or Culantro grows wild in Puerto Rico and most of Latin America.  It’s also been found in Florida, Georgia, Hawaii and Southeast Asia.  If you cannot find culantro in your local Latin market it can be found in Asian markets as ngo gai (Vietnamese).  If you enjoy gardening and want to grow your own cubanelle peppers, culantro and aji dulces chilies, check out the seeds for sale at  http://dollarman.com/store.

Aji Dulce Chile

Make a large batch of this condiment when your chilies and peppers are prime.  This recipe may be frozen in ice-cube trays then transfer the cubes to a zip-lock bag for longer freezer storage.  Use 2-3 cubes to spice up a picadillo, arroz con gandules, asopao or small pernil.   You may heighten the color and subtle flavors of meat and rice dishes with this variation:  thaw 3 sofrito cubes in a bowl then saute in 2 Tbsp achiote oil (annato seeds in olive oil)  for a couple minutes, add 2 Tbsp tomato paste blended with 1/4 cup water and bring to a lively simmer for a few minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, quartered
• 1 large green cubanelle pepper (or Anaheim chili), seeded and quartered
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and quartered (or 1 small jar of roasted red peppers)
• 1 head of garlic, cloves separated and skinned (or 1 Tbsp minced garlic)
• 1 bunch of cilantro leaves
• 6 culantro leaves
• 12 aji dulces chilies (or 2-3 habanero chiles for a spicy-hot option)
• 8-10 Spanish olives, pitted (or stuffed green olives)
• 1 Tbsp capers
• 1 Tbsp crushed oregano (3 Tbsp of fresh oregano leaves)
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Cubanelle Peppers

Method:

1. In a large food processor pulse all ingredients until fairly minced.
2. Whirl minced ingredients until nearly pureed.  Add water or juice from a jar of  roasted red peppers to facilitate pureeing.
3. Makes about 3-1/2 cups.  Pour into sterilized jars, cover and let cool to room temperature.  Refrigerate.
4. Alternately, pour pureed ingredients into clean ice-cube trays and freeze several hours.  Transfer cubes to a zip-lock bag.

Heirloom doesn’t refer to non-genetically engineered zucchini seeds but rather the recipe itself.  This pickling recipe is probably from the early 1900s though relishes and chutneys have been around a few centuries to say the least.  The first step in pickling vegetables is to remove as much water as possible from the vegetables so as not to dilute the acid and salt combo which actually preserves the veggies.   The first 8-12 hours is for sweating the veggies.  Plan on a day and a half to make a large batch of relish, about 12 cups or 6 pints.   You’ll also need a boiling-water-bath for sterilizing jars and processing the filled jars.

While living in Colorado during the 70s, my good friend, Arlene, and I made batches of zucchini relish every summer.  We used this relish just like pickle relish in potato salad, devilled eggs, on hot dogs and hamburgers, and in tuna pasta salad to list a few.  It has the sweet and sour taste of bread and butter pickles with a little kick from the chilies.  Don’t forget to include a jar of zucchini relish in a gift basket of your homemade preserves.  Friends and family will love it.

Step 1 – preparing vegetables:

• 10 cups of ground zucchini
• 5 cups of ground onion  
• 1 large green bell pepper
• 1 large red bell pepper
• 2-3 jalapeno chilies
• 5 Tbsp sea salt (Kosher or canning salt)

1. Grind all vegetables with large die.  Sprinkle salt over and mix.  Cover and let stand overnight in refrigerator. 
2. Transfer ground veggies to a large colander.   Rinse under cold water for 5 minutes and thoroughly drain until the colander no longer drips.
3. Place in a heavy bottomed stock pot or large enamel Dutch oven.

Step 2 – adding syrup and seasoning:

• 2-1/2 cups cider vinegar
• 3-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp dry mustard (or 2 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds)
• 2 tsp celery seed
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground allspice

1. Add all syrup and seasoning ingredients to the prepared vegetables.  Stir well.
2. Cook over medium high heat to a boil, stirring ocassionally.  Lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes until zucchini is translucent and syrup has thickened. Stir more often taking care not to scorch the bottom.
3. Pack sterilized jars to 1/2-inch from top of jar.  Clean rim of jar, place lid on rim and seal with ring.
4. Process jars in boiling-water-bath for 10 minutes.  Jars should be under 1 inch of boiling water.
5. Remove jars from boiling water.  Set in a draft free area until cool.  Refrigerate any jars not sealed.  Store sealed jars in a dark, cool pantry.  Refrigerate once opened.