got my mojo workin' ... that's avocado mojo to you. Morito avocado Mojo and prawns

If you follow my blog you will know how much I love Moro and its little sister Morito. The restaurants are both brilliant and all of the cookbooks are a constant source of inspiration.

the recipes not only work really well but there are always surprising new combinations to discover. In this case its prawns with avocado mojo. Prawn and avocado as a combo is obviously as old as the marie rose cocktail sauce hills but this is like a punchy prawn meets guacamole via the Canary Isles.

If you don't know what Mojo is heres wikipedia's entry

Mojo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmoxo], from Portuguese molho [ˈmoʎu], meaning "sauce") is the name, or abbreviated name, of several types of sauces, varying in spiciness, consisting primarily of olive oil, salt, water, local pepper varieties (called pimienta in the Canary Islands), garlic, paprika (called pimentón in Spain), cumin or coriander and other spices. Mojo originated in the Canary Islands, where the main varieties are red mojo (mojo rojo) and green mojo (mojo verde). Other countries have recipes similar to mojo, where acid ingredients such as Vinegar, lemon, orange or lime juice may be used.

I couldn't get any shell on prawns so I did this with peeled king prawns and it still worked well. We had it as part of a wider selection of tapas


Serves: 4

For the avocado mojo

1 large bunch of coriander, washed and roughly chopped
2 small garlic cloves
4-6 green chillies, halved lengthways and deseeded (I only had birds eye chillies so I did two)
100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 ripe, creamy avocado, peeled, pitted and chopped small
2tbsp sweet white wine vinegar, such as Moscatel

For the prawns

A drizzle of olive oil
12-16 uncooked king prawns
1 lemon, cut into quarters

Blend the coriander, garlic, chillies and olive oil in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the avocado, and season with the lemon juice, vinegar and salt, to taste.

To cook the prawns, heat a frying pan over a medium to high heat, then drizzle with a little olive oil and add the prawns. Season with salt and cook for a few seconds on each side.

Serve immediately with the mojo dressing 


notes

This recipe calls for Moscatel, a rich and sweet dessert wine vinegar made from one of the oldest grape families in the world. If you can’t get it, use normal white wine vinegar with a pinch of sugar ... I would love to say I sourced the moscatel but I didn't.

Choose avocados that are soft, not rock hard. If you need to speed up the process, place the avocado in a paper bag next to a banana, which will release the hormone ethylene to trigger ripening