[CH] PiriPiri's
Scott Northup (northups@ohsu.edu)
Fri, 14 Aug 1998 11:48:50 -0700
Howdo...Eye Bleedin' Scott here...
On a trip to Portugal back in '89, I encountered "PiriPiri" a heavenly nuclear
sauce used by every man, woman, and child in the south of the country.
My first experience with it was when we wandered by a 1500 y/o Moorish castle
that was serving most recently as a restaurant. The front 'foyer' had two large
original clay or portugese adobe wood burning BBQ's. The guy cooking this most
lovely smelling chicken and sardines had to be one of the original builders of
the place! I flailed my way through a question as to what sauce he was using and
he let me taste a little finger swipe. WOW... I'm still having post traumatic
flashbacks.... The grilled chicken with this flavor was incredible as was the
entire meal. PiriPiri chicken, fresh bread w/ sardine pate, grilled tomatoes and
onions in garlic olive oil, several bottles of obscure local vineyard white
wine, and a dessert of a honeydew-like melon cut in half, seeded, and filled
with Port. All this sitting in a castle at least 5x older than the US....
egads... I'm drooling again...
I began the quest of finding this potion bottled as most Portugese have their
own concoctions that are more closely guarded than most daughters.
Essentially the sauce is:
PiriPiri peppers (I'm sure de-stemmed)
salt, vinegar, olive oil (and I'm sure some other things I lost in
translation..)
This is all placed into a glass jar and the remaining space is filled with
Congac and left alone from 6 - 18 months.
The sauce is then pureed and used...
Has anyone ever done anything similar to this? Or know fairly well how to make
this one?
How about anyone who has experimented with chile sauces 'fortified' in various
spirits??
AN INQUIRING MIND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW...
Anyone interested in joining forces and experimenting with this type of
libation?
Now you all behave...
Eye-bleedin' Scott