Last month for Easter I
wrote about a Portuguese dessert called “fios de ovos” and I got
a nice reply of someone who prefers savory dishes instead, specially
spice. Jonathan Jones told me he fell in love with our grilled
chicken and the chilli sauce that goes with it and even asked me for
the recipe. All of this then gave me an idea: how about I wrote about
piri piri?
Fresh piri piri peppers. Picture taken from algarvedining.com
Well,
piri piri, also known as the African bird's eye chilli,
is the Portuguese language version of an African dialect word - “peri
peri” -, meaning “pepper pepper”.
It is said that it was
Colombo, at the end of the 15th century, who brought this
type of chilli to Europe and it were the Portuguese who spread it
around the world, specially Africa, through their trade. It seems
that the seed took very well to the sub-Saharan soil and this pepper
quickly became part not only of the Portuguese cuisine, but also
throughout the Portuguese colonies (mainly Angola and Mozambique) and
other of it's trading posts. Also the black slavery trade must have
contributed to it's dissemination.
There are many forms to
use this pepper: fresh, dried, as a sauce, etc. In fact, it is eaten
in such large quantities and from such an early ages on, that there
are many people that put it in almost everything they eat, even
soups.
Dried piri piri chillies. Picture taken from saltofportugal.com
Now, what is so
interesting about piri piri is it's famous sauce, which is
recognized of Portuguese origin. And one of the most used manner to
taste the sauce is over a grilled chicken.
We have 2 kind of sauces:
the freshly squashed with other spices and the one kept in oil. I'll
give you both recipes and next time you eat a grilled chicken (on
charcoal, please!) you can decide which one to use.
1st
recipe, the spiced version (as on the link below):
-250ml (1 cup) of virgin
olive oil
-4 medium sized piri
piri chillies with seeds
-8 large dried piri
piri chillies
-3 large garlic cloves
-3 tablesp. of spirit
-1 teasp. of lemon zest
-1 tablesp. of lemon juice
-2 tablesp of red wine
vinegar
-5 to 6 bay leafs
-1 teasp. of coarse salt
-1 teasp. of black pepper
corns
You can grind or squash it
all together if you prefer and keep it in a sterilized bottle or jar.
2nd
recipe, the oil version:
-40g of grinned dried piri
piri chillies
-Regular cooking oil
-1 sterilized bottle or
jar
Don't shake the
ingredients because air might ruin the flavor, just stir.
Both of the recipes keep
for a long time and the longer you keep it, the stronger the flavor.
If you want to read a bit
more, here's an article of the Chicago Tribune:
And if you want to buy a
book with traditional Portuguese recipes written in English, just go
to:
Well folks, here it is, enjoy!
1 comment:
Thank you Sara, with summer approaching and, hopefully, some decent barbecue weather, I am looking forward to trying this recipe out.
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