Piri-piri sauce
The infamous Portuguese piri-piri hot sauce is made with bird’s-eye chillies and is great with chicken wings or prawns. It adds a fragrant heat and makes any meal tongue-tinglingly special.
Ingredients
- 4 large red peppers
- 10 large red chillies
- 1 large red onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 5 bird’s-eye chillies
- 100ml/3½fl oz olive oil
- 1 heaped tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 100ml/3½fl oz lemon juice
- 70ml/2â…“fl oz red wine vinegar
- 15²µ/½´Ç³ú sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 lemon, zest only
Method
Place the red peppers and red chillies on a heavy baking tray, then carefully char them all over using a blowtorch if you have one, or the flame on a gas hob. Alternatively, place them under a very hot grill. Transfer the charred peppers and chillies to a bowl and cover with cling film. Leave for 10 minutes so they steam while cooling, softening the skins.
Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the red onion then peel and grate the garlic. Remove the green stalks from the bird’s-eye chillies then chop the chillies thoroughly, leaving the seeds in for that piri-piri kick.
Use your fingers or a tea towel to slide the skins off the charred peppers and chillies, but don’t worry if there’s little bits left as this will lend the sauce an authentic grilled flavour. Remove all the seeds, then put the prepared peppers and chillies into a food processor.
Add the chopped bird’s-eye chillies to the food processor. Pulse to blend the peppers and chillies together coarsely. Alternatively, you can chop them all by hand.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. It might seem a lot but will help to emulsify your sauce. Once the oil is hot, add the chopped onion and cook until just caramelised to bring out the sweetness and complement the fragrant chilli heat.
Add the garlic to the pan and cook for 1 minute. Add the coarsely blended peppers and chillies.
Stir in the paprika and oregano then cook the mixture for 3 minutes before adding the lemon juice, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Turn the heat down low and cook the sauce for a further 25 minutes.
After this time, remove the pan from the heat and allow the sauce to cool for 10 minutes. Carefully transfer it back into the food processor and blend for 4 minutes until you have a super smooth sauce.
Season the piri-piri sauce with the fresh lemon zest to taste. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 months.
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