Traditional recipes

Food has always faithfully reflected the identity of a people, of a society. This is why the gastronomy of La Palma is linked to the coast. Whether it is with products from the sea, such as fish or limpets, or with delicacies from the coast, such as gofio or papas arrugadas (wrinkled potatoes) cooked in seawater.
Garafiana cod
  • 1kg of cod
  • 3 medium onions 3 cloves of garlic Fried tomato
  • 1 pepper
  • Mojo picón or mild mojo sauce Oil
  • Vinegar Salt

Chop three onions. Fry them in a deep frying pan (you can also use a flat casserole dish), together with 3 cloves of garlic cut into slices and a red pepper cut into strips.

When everything is soft, add two large spoonfuls of fried tomato and salt to taste. Add a pinch of cumin powder and a splash of vinegar. Then add a few spoonfuls of mojo. Mojo picón preferably, but not too much.

Leave it a little longer over a low heat until everything is well poached.

Then add the cod cut into pieces. Put the pieces one by one into the frying pan and mix carefully. Leave it to simmer for a while until you see that the cod is ready.

Then turn off the heat and let it rest. Serve it hot and accompany it with wrinkled potatoes and a cool rosé wine.

Haddock with potatoes
  • 1 kilo of haddock cut into 5 pieces 5 medium potatoes
  • 5 medium onions 1/2 glass of oil 1/2 lemon (juice)
  • 6 tablespoons of dry white wine 1 fish stock cube
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 80-gram tin of red peppers a few sprigs of parsley
  • 1 bay leaf

Finely chop the onions and brown them in 6 tablespoons of oil. Peel and cut the potatoes into slices, not too thin. Crush the garlic cloves, parsley and the peppers, well drained of their juice, in a mortar. Set this juice aside.

In a saucepan, put 1/2 litre of water with the lemon juice, the white wine, the bay leaf and the juice of the peppers. Bring to the boil for 3 minutes and add the fish stock cube; remove from the heat and stir until dissolved.

Put the remaining oil in a slightly larger casserole dish, add the chopped potatoes and onions and sauté over a low heat.

Then add the contents of the mortar, stir a few times so that they are well impregnated, and then pour the fish stock over them. Stir the casserole a little so that everything settles well, raise the heat a little and leave to cook for about 10 minutes.

Lapas with mojo picón
  • Fresh limpets
  • Mojo picón

Clean the limpets well with plenty of water to remove all the sand. Put a teaspoonful of mojo picón on each limpet and place them face up on a griddle over a low heat for about 4 or 5 minutes until the flesh has detached from the shell.

Wrinkled potatoes with sea water and mojo picón

  • 1kg of potatoes
  • A large pot of sea water
  • 1 dried peppers from La Palma 2-3 fresh hot peppers
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin 4 cloves of garlic
  • 100 ml oil
  • 50 ml vinegar Paprika

For the potatoes, put them unpeeled in a large, deep pot and cover them with seawater. The skin of the potatoes will act as a barrier and they will only take the amount of salt they need. Cover them with a clean cloth and put the lid on. They will be cooked and tender in about 20 minutes. Then, remove the water and drain them. In the same pot, pour a good handful of salt over the potatoes and dry them over the fire, stirring them and making them jump inside for about a minute. They are then ready to serve.

For the mojo picón it is important that the dried peppers are soaked for 4 to 10 hours before the recipe is prepared. The La Palma’s peppers and the hot ones should also be cleaned of their seeds before adding them to the mortar and pestle. In the mortar, together with the peppers, add the peeled and chopped garlic, paprika and cumin. Crush well until you get a thick cream. Continue crushing and add, little by little, the oil and vinegar, until the mojo has the desired consistency. Check the salt and add if necessary.

Roast sardines

Ingredients for 4 people 24 fresh sardines coarse sea salt

  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Do not clean the sardines at all, prepare them as they come from the fish shop and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Leave them like this for half an hour.

Grease the oven grill with olive oil. Place the sardines on top, shaking off the salt.

Turn the grill on at maximum and place the sardines as far away from the heat as possible so that they do not burn.

When they begin to brown, turn them over to cook on the other side and then remove them.

They can be eaten as fingerfood, accompanied with wholemeal bread spread with salted butter. To grill them on a barbecue, they can be prepared in the same way.

Bonito with bell peppers
  • 1 kilo of bonito cut into squares
  • ⅕ kilo of bell peppers 4 cloves of garlic
  • Oil

Brown the garlic in an earthenware casserole dish. Add the seasoned tuna, a bit of water and leave to simmer for 10 minutes.

Finally add the bell peppers in strips and leave to cook for a further 5 minutes over a very low heat.

Roast horse mackerel
  • 2 large horse mackerel 1/2 glass of oil
  • 4 medium onions
  • 12 spoonfuls of dry sherry or white wine 2 oranges
  • 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs for the marinade 3 tablespoons orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 teaspoon mustard

Al comprar los chicharros, pedir en la pescadería que nos los vacíen y nos recorten las escamas, sobre todo las muy gruesas que poseen estos pescados en los costados.

When you buy the fish, ask the fishmonger to empty them and cut off the scales, especially the very thick scales on the sides.

Prepare the marinade. Soak the horse mackerel well in the marinade, inside and out, and leave to marinate for 1/2 hour on a platter.

Slice the onions horizontally and break the slices into rounds. Put 4 tablespoons of oil in an ovenproof dish and heat over a low heat. Add the sliced onions.

Cook until it is soft but not coloured. Spread the onions over the bottom of the dish. Make two slightly deep cuts on one side of each horse mackerel and place them on their uncut side on the onion bed of the dish.

Cut the orange down the centre and cut a thick slice from each side.

Bake the horse mackerel in the oven for about 15 minutes at a low temperature. For the presentation, place them on a plate interspersed with the crusty bread, the slices of orange, the orange sauce and some green leaves. And ready to serve.

Blanched gofio
  • 100gr of gofio 500ml of broth Hortelana
  • Salt
  • Red onion

Blanched gofio is a perfect side dish for fish. To prepare it, put the gofio in a bowl with a few sprigs of hortelana and pour very hot stock over the gofio, stirring constantly to prevent lumps, until the mixture is homogeneous. Season with salt to taste and serve immediately, accompanied, if desired, by a few slices of red onion and Canarian mojos.

Bonito with tomato
  • 1kg tuna
  • 11 small onion Olive oil
  • 11 half-kilo tin of tomatoes Flour
  • 11 spoonful of sugar

Flour the slices of tuna and fry them in a frying pan, while the oil is very hot. In an earthenware casserole, brown the chopped onion and add the tomatoes with a teaspoon of sugar and a little salt, leaving it to simmer for 20 minutes.

Finally, add the slices of tuna to the casserole and leave to simmer for 10 minutes, also over a low heat.

Roast sardines with potatoes and mojo sauce
  • 1 kg of sardines
  • ½ kg of potatoes for garnish
  • ¼ kg coarse salt

    For the coriander mojo:
  • 1/2 clove of garlic
  • 1 bunch of coriander 1 dl Vinegar
  • 1 dl olive oil Salt

Roast the cleaned and filleted sardines skin-side up on a bed of coarse salt in the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes.

Stew the potatoes with the skin in salted water and allow the water to evaporate. Make the coriander mojo by crushing the garlic, coriander, vinegar, oil and salt.

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