| Peri-peri | |
|---|---|
 Peri-peri peppers (ripe red and unripe green) | |
| Genus | Capsicum |
| Species | Capsicum frutescens |
| Cultivar | Pili pili |
| Origin | Americas |
| Heat |  Very hot |
| Scoville scale | 50,000–175,000 SHU |
Piri piri (/ˌpɪriˈpɪri/PIRR-ee-PIRR-ee), often hyphenated or as one word, and with variant spellingsperi-peri (/ˌpɛriˈpɛriː/) orpili pili,[1] is acultivar ofCapsicum frutescens from themalagueta pepper. It was originally produced byPortuguese explorers inPortugal's former Southern African territories[2][3] and then spread to other Portuguese domains.
Pilipili inSwahili means "pepper". Otherromanizations includepili pili in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo andperi peri inMalawi, deriving from various pronunciations of the word in different parts ofBantu-speaking Africa. Theperi peri spelling is common in English due to its use inSouth Africa, however, in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries such as Mozambique, where the modern usage of the pepper originates, the spellingpiri-piri is used.[4]
TheOxford Dictionary of English recordspiri-piri as a foreign word meaning "a very hot sauce made with red chilli peppers", and gives its ultimate origin as the word for "pepper" (presumably in thenative-African sense) in theRonga language of southern Mozambique, wherePortuguese explorers developed the homonymouscultivar frommalagueta pepper.[5]
Plants are usually very bushy and grow in height to 45–120 cm (18–47 in) with leaves 4–7 cm (1+1⁄2–3 in) long and1.3–1.5 cm (1⁄2–9⁄16 in) wide. The fruits are generally tapered to a blunt point and measure up to2–3 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄4 in) long. The immature pod colour is green; the mature colour is bright red or purple. Some bird's-eye chili varieties measure up to 175,000Scoville heat units.[6]
Like all chili peppers, piri-piri is descended from plants from the Americas, but it has grown in the wild in Africa for centuries and is now cultivated commercially in Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe[7] and Rwanda. It grows mainly in Malawi, Ethiopia, Zambia, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Portugal. It is cultivated for both commercial food processing and the pharmaceutical industry. Cultivation of piri-piri is labor-intensive.[7]
Piri-pirisauce was produced by mixingpepper withcondiments thePortuguese traded with their other territories inAsia andIndia. The first sauce may have been produced in any part ofPortugal's empire. Given the lack of reliable sources that it was specifically mixed in Mozambique, it seems impossible to say more than the sauce was originally produced within the Portuguese Empire, either in their territories inSouthern Africa or elsewhere.[8][9]
The sauce is made from piri-piri chilis (used as a seasoning or marinade). Beyond Portugal and the Southern African region (Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa) where it is very popular,[10] the sauce is particularly well known in theUnited Kingdom due to the success of theSouth African restaurant chainNando's.
Recipes vary from region to region, and sometimes within the same region depending on intended use (for example, cooking vs. seasoning at the table) but the key ingredients are chili and garlic, with an oily or acidic base.[11][12][13]
Other common ingredients are salt, lemon, spirits (namelywhisky),citrus peel, onion, pepper,bay leaves,paprika,pimiento, basil, oregano and tarragon.[14]
Media related toCapsicum frutescens 'Piri Piri' at Wikimedia Commons| C. annuum var.annuum |
|
|---|---|
| C. annuum var.glabriusculum | |
| C. chinense | |
| C. frutescens | |
| C. baccatum | |
| C. pubescens | |
