Piri Piri sauce is very popular in Portugal and African countries. I was always thought that it was originally from Portugal but it wasn't, Portuguese did bring the chilies to these countries.
Here is my discovery about the classic and original Piri Piri Sauce : “Portugal sent chilies to its two African colonies of Angola and Mozambique about 200 years ago and it was in Mozambique in the late 1890s that an elderly lady managed to produce this pinnacle of salivating sauces. She only used two ingredients (3 if you include a little water), but ingeniously created a taste that transcends all others”.
Blog - https://nelsoncarvalheiro.com/portuguese-piri-piri-chicken-recipe/
I tried to replicate this recipe and tried to keep as an original flavor and taste as possible. The result was amazing and I hope you like it.
Cooking and preparation time 8 hours & 20 minutes
Ingredients
150gr Piri Piri (Bird eyes chilies)
14 Lemons or 1 liter Lemon Juice
Water until it necessary
How to make:
First take the juice out from the Lemon and put it into a pot, the chilies, take off the stems and add it with the Lemon juice.
Bring the pot to the gas and turn on the heat in medium high until it starts boil.
After its boiling reduce the heat to the minimum possible and let it simmer without lid until it reduces about 75% of what we have now, it should take around 3 hours.
After 3 hours passed, you can see it looks slightly caramelized and with an earthy and lemony aroma and also the chilies are loosen and the juice start to thicken.
Scratch the caramelized parts that is on the pot and mix it with the sauce, now to keep cooking, add 250ml of water, let it simmer again for 5 more hours, if you need to add more water meanwhile add it in, to keep the consistency you like and get an amazing flavor. I added 750ml water in total you might need more or less and simmer in minimum heat possible.
After 8 hours passed in total, turn off the gas.
The chilies seem plum and the lemon juice thicken. The aroma is going to be so different from the beginning.
Now with a blender blend all together, you can use also a mortar and pestle, that is the traditional way.
Blend it until its smooth paste, you can add water if necessary for consistency.
But I suggest you to not add the water now, if we do so we can preserve for more than 6 months. In this way you can add water or oil before use it to bring up the consistency you desire whenever you like to use it.
Keep it in a glass bottle. To sterilized the bottle, boil the bottle and it's lid for around 10 minutes, this will make sure the bacteria's stay away from our sauce. Then dry it very well and add the sauce in and store or use straight way.
This sauce goes well with meats and fish dishes and from this amount of Piri Piri sauce you can make it several dishes.
