Grilled Shrimp Piri Piri
Grilled Shrimp Piri Piri or anything piri piri is very popular with the Portuguese culture. Piri piri is basically heat from hot sauce, hot chili peppers made into a sauce, a paste, crushed dried or just chopped and added. The amount of heat is determined by the chili pepper used and its level on the Scoville index.
½ cup hot pepper paste
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
¼ cup white wine, lemon juice or wine vinegar
¼ cup olive oil
1 pound extra large shrimp, unpeeled, deveined
Wooden skewers presoaked in water ½ hour
- Mix the first five ingredients in a bowl. Toss the shrimp in the dressing and give them a turn to coat. Let stand ½ hour. Thread the shrimp on the soaked skewers.
- Place the skewered shrimp over medium coals and grill 1 ½ minutes. Turn over and grill the other side for 1 ½ minutes more, until the shrimp are lightly pink and start to curl.
- Serve Grilled Shrimp Piri Piri with plain or tomato rice (see Portuguese Home Cooking) on the side garnished with black Portuguese olives.
Tip: For this dish, you can sometimes get shrimp that has been deveined but the shells are left intact and are easy to peel. Keeping the shells on during grilling protects the shrimp from drying out.
