Piri Piri: A Love Affair

A simple small very hot pepper, sometimes called a bird’s eye pepper. But that is just the beginning.
Centuries ago, Portuguese traders introduced the piri piri pepper to Mozambique (1) and the use of this wonderful fruit spread across Africa. At home in Portugal, people rapidly developed a taste for the sauce made from piri piri. Over the centuries, various verities of hot peppers were used, and various recipes were invented to make a hot and tasty pepper sauce.
A few days into our trip to the northern half of Portugal, we had dinner in a small, local and new restaurant. No sign. No customers at first. Not really set up yet. The owner agreed to make us a meal with wine for 10 Euros each, and we sat and waited. Bread, olives and cheese to start, then small pitchers of red and white wine, both good quality table wines. Then the main course: thick grilled veal steaks and rice. The veal was perfectly cooked and the rice with beans was excellent. And spicy. Bernard, the chef, spoke some English and told us the main spice used was a piri piri pepper. He brought one out to show us, and it was indeed a bird’s eye pepper.
Since then we asked for piri piri (always available as a sauce) at every meal, and used it liberally on rice or meat or sandwiches. There was an almost endless variety of ways to make and serve it, but always it was hot, spicy and tasty. My favorite was peppers smashed with fresh lemon juice and mixed with a little Scotch whisky. The flavor of the whisky pretty much goes away, but the alcohol releases much more of the “heat” (capsaicin) and makes the sauce tangy and fiery.
In the South, we have several stock pepper sauces, like Tabasco, Krystal, Pick-a-Pepper and many others. These are all different and more or less used the same way. None are a good match for homemade piri piri sauce in Portugal. You gotta try it if you get the chance. I will perfect the whisky recipe and send it on. Bom apatite.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_piri
Image: http://www.fiery-foods.com/article-archives/89-photo-essays/1800-my-20-favorite-chile-photos