A hotty but a goody!

I brought back a bottle of Mojo Picon (canary chili sauce) from Gran Canaria earlier this year as lots of dishes in the restaurants we went to contained it and it gave a nice kick in a kind of fruity way! Whilst on holiday we cooked a chicken smothered in it one night in our apartment (I think in the microwave if I recall correctly!!) and had it with salad and rice and it was absolutely delicious! On the last night of the holiday we ate at a fantastic restaurant on the little square off the harbour in Puerto de Mogan. It was very traditional and rustic, with friendly staff, authentic embroidered table cloths and wall hangings, and little maritime artefacts and lanterns hanging around our heads. "La Bodega" served us a tapas selection of traditional Canarian Delights - including potatoes cooked in canarian sauce and also succulent rabbit in the picon sauce - plenty of chili, garlic, peppers and a warming fruity sauce.

Last week we experimented with the last few dollops of sauce, having only used it on unoriginal things like chips and pizza until now, and created this curry. We used beef but I think chicken would be fab with it.

Ingredients:

Beef or chicken
Red onion, chopped
Garlic, pressed
Celery, chopped
Jalapeno or similar chili, in rings
Chopped tinned tomatoes
Tomato puree
Chickpeas, drained
Red wine
Canary chili sauce
Seasoning
Fresh coriander leaf, roughly chopped
Rice
Lemon juice

I really did chuck it all together and guess quantities, to taste, but here are some rough instructions:

1. Fry the cubed meat off in a large, deep frying pan in olive oil until no pink bits remain - I squeezed half a lemon over the meat before I started cooking

2. Add chopped onions, garlic and celery and soften on a fairly low heat

3. Squeeze a generous amount of tomato puree over the meat and veg and add the canary chili sauce according to your spice threshold - I dribbled over about a tablespoon altogether

4. Coat everything with the sauce, and use like a paste

5. Once coated and frying nicely, add the tin of tomatoes, allow to boil, season, stir and pop a lid on, leaving to simmer on a very low heat for as long as you like

6. When you are happy with the consistency of the sauce and that your meat is cooked through / tender enough according to your liking, remove the lid and reduce down slightly whilst you cook the rice

7. Sprinkle with coriander and serve with haricots verts or similar, and lemon wedges if you desire

Photo to follow next time I make it - I didn't expect it to be nice enough to blog about :D

Enjoy! :-)