That day I created Enchantment #LanzaroteCookOff

Some days I astonish myself with what I can do. I like to put on this pretence that I’m not a great adult, that I can’t cook and I’d rather spend all evening on YouTube and a full weekend on Xbox than start a family.

But you know what? When I put my mind to it, I can actually cook. I mean, it’s just following a recipe, really. But I’m not that good at being told what to do, so I often do steer away from the recipe and add my own pah-zaz to it. I dunno if pahzaz is a word and if it is, how you spell it, but it feels right.

So here’s the deal. Thomas Cook Airlines asked me to cook a Lanzarote dish and share it with you lot. In exchange, they sent me a lava rock for cooking on and the ingredients. They’ve also got a few other bloggers involved and the best recipe will win a holiday for two to Lanzarote. After the last few weeks I’ve had, I could really do with a break because I don’t feel like I can catch a break lately in the UK. Send me away to the seaside to recoup! Take a look at their cheap flights, if you’re feeling like me!

Thomas Cook Airlines did provide us with some possible recipes to recreate, but the problem here was that they had meat in. And for those of you that are wondering, I decided not to stop being a vegetarian just yet. I mean, I still might at some point but I think I have too many new things going on in life right now to make such drastic decisions.

So I turned to my BFF, Google, who showed me a bunch of traditional Lanzarote recipes and I decided to make a Lentil Stew and some wrinkly potatoes with mojo sauce.

Potaje de Lentejas – Lentil Stew

Ingredients: 

• 500g orange or green lentils
• half a red pepper
• half a green pepper
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 small potatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 stick celery
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 table spoons olive oil
• 1/4 table spoon of paprika
• salt to taste
• chorizo if you’re making a non-veggie version

Method:

Wash the lentils. This is important. I forgot until it was too late. Then add the vegetables (apart from the potatoes.

Chop the peppers and tomatoes into chunks. Finely chop the celery. Quarter the onion. Add the cloves of garlic in whole (I added 8 but I’m an extremist), add the bay leaf (again, this extremist added two) and then add the rosemary and olive oil. Oh, and the paprika. Add that too. Although I just poured because I don’t like to take life too seriously. It worked out okay in the end.

Cover with water, bring to oil and then reduce the heat slightly. When the lentils are soft, add the potatoes (and meat if using). I also forgot this and added the potatoes right away and I survived the tell the tale.

Boil for about 45 minutes, then add to the salt to taste.

Papas con Mojo

This is wrinkly potatoes with mojo sauce and it’s so easy to make. I can’t believe I actualllllly made the sauce. Myself. From scratch. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever made!

Ingredients for mojo sauce:

• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbs of cumin powder
• 1 tea spoon paprika
• 1 tea spoon sea salt
• a splash of olive oil
• 2 red peppers

Method

You basically just blend it all together, adding more olive oil depending on how thick or runny you want it.

Potatoes:

This is soooo easy. Just add as many potatoes as required to a pan and add about 3-4cm of water – it’s okay if the water doesn’t cover the potatoes. Add around 200g of coarse sea salt and cover the potatoes with a tea towel (not the pan). Boil slowly for around 20 minutes.

Then drain and steam dry on a low heat and a layer of salt will appear on the potatoes!

       

Of course, this dish was enjoyed with wine!

What do you think of this meal? Have you ever tried a Lanzarote dish?