About the Recipe
Blend No.3
A wonderful fragrant spice blend, used extensively in North Africa. There are many variations on this mix. This dish can be prepared quickly and then placed in the oven to cook'
METHOD
1. STEP
Prepare your ingredients.
2. STEP
Add the oil to a hot pan.
3. STEP
Sauté the onion, carrot, and chicken together on a high heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Keep stirring.
4. STEP
Add the Piri Piri mix and keep stirring for a few minutes more.
5. STEP
Add the chopped tomatoes and olives, turn down the heat and allow to simmer.
6. STEP
Let it simmer for another 5 minutes or until cooked through.
7. STEP
Add the chopped coriander, stir in, and serve.
8. STEP
Serve and enjoy.
INGREDIENTS
700g chicken breasts - diced
2 medium carrots - peeled and thinly sliced
1 large onion - finely diced
2 tsp Spicemasters Piri Piri Mix
½ tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp oil
A dozen green olives
A few sprigs of coriander - chopped
Typical Nutritional Content
What is PiriPiri Spice? The African Spirit.
PiriPiri spices are a spicy blend inspired by one of the most exciting African flavours. Whether you’re looking to spice up a pot of rice or add personality to a stew, PiriPiri is a great alternative. Piripiri is also extraordinary as a barbecue rub, and you don’t want to miss it.
What’s undeniable is that PiriPiri is a world phenomenon. Those in the know, no matter where they are in the world, know that they can use this colourful blend to spice up things a little and in the most compelling way. Here’s all you need to know about PiriPiri and Spice Master’s PiriPiri blend.
The History of PiriPiri Spices
The Portuguese discovered hot peppers during their first trips to the new world. The capsicum cultivars or peppers are native to Central and South America. The love for the pepper’s addictive heat led European colonists to export the thrilling fruit elsewhere. Eventually, the Portuguese introduced hot peppers to Africa, notably Mozambique and South Africa, where it was immediately adopted.
Pilipili is the Swahili term for pepper, which led us to name hot spice blends of African origin PiriPiri or periperi. The actual peri-peri pepper cultivar is incredibly hot, with up to 175,000 Scoville heat units. The secret behind enjoying such ferocious pepper is taming it with herbs and spices.
The Portuguese established a stable production of hot peri-peri sauce in South Africa, Angola and Mozambique. And it became the ultimate marinade and dry rub for meat, stews, chicken and seafood. There’s much joy in livening food with such an exotic spice blend, as it gives colour, aromatics, flavour and a pleasant heat to everything it touches.
Spice Master’s PiriPiri Blend is not particularly hot. Instead, it’s balanced, complex and rustic and appeals to the traditional peri-peri sauces of the past. Now, you can enjoy PiriPiri at home fast and easy.
How to Use PiriPiri Spices
Using PiriPiri spices is easy. A little goes a long way, but you can also go crazy with this spice blend. Rub and sauté chicken with PiriPiri spices for a flavourful, quick meal. Sprinkle just a little over a salmon fillet, or dry rub a whole chicken with it before roasting.
Meat skewers, veggie dishes or flaky fish, everything goes with PiriPiri, as the spices bless the food with rich flavours, heart-warming scents and a mild spiciness that’s easy to enjoy. The Portuguese African spice blend is larger than life, and it’s incredibly versatile and noble. You’ll find adding PiriPiri spices to your meals an easy task.
What Makes PiriPiri Special?
Perhaps the most essential elements in a PiriPiri spice blend are the hot ingredients, cayenne and chilli. Still, the magic happens when you find the correct balance with herbs and spices to make the heat pleasant and inviting. These are the ingredients in Spice Master’s unique PiriPiri Spice Blend.
1. Basil
The fragrant Mediterranean herb has the most attractive flavour and a unique sweetness. Along with its natural refreshing taste, basil helps balance the spice blend by keeping it light and flavourful. In fact, Basil is native to central Africa, so it makes sense to combine it with spicier elements common in the continent.
2. Cayenne
African cayenne is legendary. Brightly coloured and intensely flavourful, cayenne rates high on the heat scale, but it’s fantastic! There’s no doubt this is a critical element in our PiriPiri blend. Of course, to enjoy cayenne pepper to its fullest, one must balance it with other spices.
3. Chilli
Ground chilli pepper complements cayenne with heat, but it also adds attractive dried fruit flavours to PiriPiri. Chilli peppers came to Africa with the 16th-century Portuguese explores. Hot peppers immediately became an African staple.
4. Garlic
The fragrant bulb we all know and love plays a supporting role in our PiriPiri spice blend. Garlic’s pungent but warm scents help elevate the food’s flavour while rounding up the culinary experience. Farmers in Africa traditionally plant garlic on the shortest day of the year.
5. Celery Salt
More than regular salt, celery salt is more adaptable and friendlier than coarse salt. Blessed by fragrant celery seeds, this key ingredient underlines the flavours of each element in the spice blend with beautiful results.
6. Ginger
Ginger is a popular ingredient, and it’s widely used in African cuisines for its ability to counter hot pepper’s intense pungency. Ginger is floral and fragrant and addictively refreshing on the back palate.
7. Oregano
This fragrant and earthy Mediterranean herb feels right at home in Africa, and it also helps tame pepper’s heat. While doing so, oregano also adds freshness and lively flavours to any PiriPiri spice blend. Oregano means “brightness of the mountain,” and the herb is bright indeed.
8. Onion
Along with garlic, powdered onion is a base flavour to build complex and beautiful spice blends. First cultivated 7,000 years ago, there’s no doubt onions are essential in all cuisines worldwide. Of course, onions are pretty intense, but they mellow when roasted, rewarding your senses with the sweetest scents and flavours. PiriPiri spice blends benefit from that heat-taming sweetness.
9. Black Pepper
A shrivelled fruit, rather than a spice, black peppercorns are spicy but not in the same way as peppers. Black pepper is warm and comforting as well and helps bring together other spices and herbs. Black peppers are very compatible with grilled meat, making the PiriPiri spice blend a perfect dry rub.
10. Kaffir Lime
Popular in the Arabic world, including North Africa, Kaffir limes and their fragrant leaves are intensely aromatic; they are refreshing and redolent of a summer breeze. The aromatic oils in these ingredients hardly cooks off, so they are pretty persistent. There’s no doubt such resilient nature helps balance the spicy PiriPiri spice blend by countering the heat harmoniously.
11. Cumin
The Ancient Egyptians already prized cumin seeds, Africa’s largest civilisation in the past, and it was also favoured along the Mediterranean Basin. The seeds of this flowering plant, a member of the parsley family, are attractive and persistent, and infuse food with herbal and earthy notes. Many spice blends rely on cumin for flavour depth, and that’s the case with PiriPiri as well.
PiriPiri Is Layers Over Layers of Flavour
As a dry rub, condiment or marinade, few spice blends are more vibrant than PiriPiri, especially if you enjoy a little heat. Beautifully balanced and flavourful, Spice Master’s PiriPiri Spice Blend is the perfect companion at grilling parties and holidays, when the food must genuinely shine.