Re: [CH] PiriPiri's
shadow1@pioneer.net
Fri, 14 Aug 1998 14:30:37 +0000
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?
Eye-bleedin' Scott
-----------------------------------------
hi scott I know exactly what you mean about the peri peri
my soon to be wife is a portugese from south africa and she has
really bummed about not having this sauce, it is like catsup to
americans. I have been doing alot of investigation into this lil
sauce and into the peppers themselves so far the sauce is very easy
to find if you look on the net there is even a place in south africa
that is devoted to the peri peri chicken I don't rember what it is
called.
the seeds of the peri peri are very very hard to find. I have gotten
some from one of my fiance's friends from portugal. alittle
translation for you ...in portugese peri peri means hot hot.
if you are interested I will find out the name of the chicken place
for you. they sell some sauces but they might not have what you are
looking for .... she might also have a recipe for peri peri chicken.
I have also found a sauce here called peri peri by table mountain
here is the address for table mountain so that you can maybe write to
them. table mountain foods inc. p.o box 472005 san francisco ca.
94172
if you find out anything in your searches please let me know.
the seeds that I have I am trying to grow right now but they are
really hard to start. I will let you know how they do. and if I can
get them going I will be happy to seed you some seeds.
hot regards
mark roache' " master of shadows"