After spending an afternoon stewing half the ingredients in my kitchen to make Beef Rendang, I was in the mood last night to cook something up a bit easier. You know, like shrimp. Turns out last month while I was investigating African dishes for my failed attempt at a Survivor: Gabon tie-in, I came across a nifty South African dish on Epicurious.com called prawns peri peri (or piri piri, as it’s also spelled). I contemplated cooking it up as the ingredients were far from demanding (prawns/shrimp, garlic, oil, lemons, chiles, etc.), but as part of the recipe, you’ve got to make a batch of peri peri sauce. Again, not very difficult at all (just add chiles, garlic and lemon rind to oil and shake), but I was afraid that after I made the dish, I’d be left with all this sauce and nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, I tabled the dish for the time being while I contemplated whether or not I wanted an extra bottle of peri peri sauce lingering around.
A few weeks later, I happened to catch that show Ask Aida on the Food Network, and lo and behold, she was making shrimp piri piri (hers were piri piri, not peri peri). Her recipe was somewhat different than the Epicurious one (not by much), but what attracted me to it were the amazing colors it seemed to have. You guessed it: vibrant orange â€â€Ã‚ the magical color that all my food seems to take on these days. More importantly, Ms. Mollenkamp’s recipe didn’t require me to create a batch of piri piri sauce. I was sold.
My attempts to do the piri piri after the jump…
First things first, I gotta roast up some serrano chiles.
Don’t worry; I only used three. This is where my handy-dandy toaster oven comes into play (thanks to my brother for giving it to me for my birthday).
Meanwhile, all my other ingredients are ready: red wine vinegar, limes, paprika, and garlic.
About thirteen minutes later, the chiles are ready. They smell great.
I deseed the chiles and then add them to the Magic Bullet blender attachment along with the paprika, garlic, lime juice, and vinegar.
All systems are go.
After one pulse, it looks like someone got shot to death inside the blender.
With further blending and the addition of some olive oil, the mixture takes on a bright orange color. I soon succumb to a brief coughing fit as airborne chile particles wreak havoc on my respiratory system.
The vibrancy is kind of insane. Note that this mixture would probably go nicely on certain sandwiches. Of course, it’s very intense and hot, but hey, that’s part of the fun!
Enter the thawed frozen shrimp.
Worlds collide as the shrimp get doused with a heavy helping of piri piri sauce.
Marination ensues.
The rice cooker gets its jasmine rice on.
Meanwhile, I decide to increase the already high garlic quotient by making some homemade garlic bread. Note the toaster oven again.
After some solid marinating, I add the shrimp to the skillet. The sauce got a bit runny because there was still quite a bit of water that appeared in the thawing process. It didn’t really affect anything (beyond the quality of the sear â€â€Ã‚ not a big deal).
The finished product three minutes later.
My humble dinner. The advantage of the sauce becoming so runny was that it flavored the rice very well. And let’s not overlook the garlic bread. It was fairly awesome.
In another Magic Bullet attachment, I whipped together melted Earth Balance (a.k.a. healthy, fake butter), garlic, parsley, and parmesan. Then I just poured it over the bread, added a slight drizzle of olive oil, stuck it in the toaster oven, and voila â€â€Ã‚ awesomeness.
Overall, a pretty nifty (and easy) dinner. I should note that I added cilantro and salt after this photo (both ingredients are part of the recipe. I just forgot to take pics).
So how did it taste? Really good! Surprisingly, the flavor wasn’t super strong. It’s not like scampi where you feel like you’re biting into a garlic clove. Also, the heat wasn’t terribly strong. The sauce was hotter before I added it to the shrimp and cooked it. In the future, I may not deseed the serranos as much. Still, the star of the dish is the shrimp, not the sauce, and as such, the piri piri really serves to supplement the flavors, not overpower them. Would I make it again? Oh definitely. It probably only took about twenty minutes total (excluding marinating time).
Of course, now I have to try the Epicurious version and decide which is better. Be on the lookout for Piri Piri: The Sequel…
UPDATE: I just had the leftover piri piri four days later, and it was delicious. This is definitely a dish that improves with time (but not too much time â€â€Ã‚ this is shrimp, after all).
