Food-making Escapades: Mojo-Making

For the past few weeks, I've been craving some of Shakey's Mojos. I did get my fix, but then I realized that every time I want to snack on mojos, I'd have to get myself to a Shakey's and buy some or have them delivered to me. Both do cost money that sometimes you're just not willing to spend and then your left depressed because you can't have any. Isn't there an easier, more cost-effective way to those potatoe treats? So  I figured why don't I just cook them myself.

To anyone who's been living under a rock since the dawn of Shakey's, mojos are simply potato wedges that are seasoned, floured, then deep friend. They are awesome goodness that the awesome deities of the heavens have decided to bless us with. 

Realistically, I'm not going to be able to copy what Shakey's does with their potato wedges. What I did realize is that you can make your own recipe. Like I said, it's just potatoes seasoned and floured then dumped into boiling oil. 

Potatoes. Seasoning. Flour. Oil. This is all you need. And, of course, a kitchen with the basic amenities.

Since I was trying this out first time, I decided to use just one potato. I didn't want to waste veggies in case this food-making escapade went bust. Just airing in the side of caution. 

Tip: If you're trying a new recipe or if you're not used to cooking or baking, I find it best to cut the recipe in half or even in smaller measurements to make things a bit easier.

The flour business was easy. We always have all purpose flour in stock because I love to bake. For the seasoning, I used whatever I could find in the kitchen, which were black pepper, cayenne pepper, fine salt, and this artificial seasoning you may know as Ginisa Flavor Mix. I also used some pre-mixed garlic-flavored breading that I nicked from our sari-sari store. I didn't have any garlic powder so I thought the breading would do the trick.

Salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, Ginisa flavor mix,
garlic-flavored breading.

I basically just mixed the seasonings into the flour, just eyeballing them really; I didn't accurately measure them. Remember, I was only using one potato which yielded about seven wedges so I guesstimated how much of the flour I would need.

Also, for  my potato, I left it unpeeled and my mom had this vegetable cutter thing that I used to give the wedges some ridges. I thought I'd go a bit fancy-schmancy with it. After cutting, I salted and peppered the potato wedges.

Fancy-schmancy veggie cutter.

To coat the wedges with flour, you can either just dip into the flour mixture or you could pour the flour into a brown paper bag, toss the wedges in there and shake the paper bag until the wedges are nice and covered. I didn't have a paper bag, so I used a zip-lock bag which did just fine. 

Now all that's left to do was to do some deep fry magic. I cooked the potato wedges until they were a golden which took about a few minutes. Of course, I let them rest after cooking to make sure that the excess oil was removed and to let it cool before eating.

The potato wedges tasted good by my standards but I'm definitely going to try and do variations with the seasoning next time I make them. It's good to try different flavors with food, really. As for dip, I'm a ketchup girl but to each our own really. There are various dips you can buy at the supermarket or you can go on the internet and look up some recipes.

Mojos done!

So that was mojo-making on weekend. I'm pretty happy that I can just whip this up as a snack whenever the craving for home-made mojos rear its head.

SNACK TIME!