Homemade Piri Piri Sauce

Spicy Piri Piri Sauce makes a fabulous marinade for grilled chicken, pork or fish. Brush extra on as you grill too! 

After a long day of surf and sun in the Algarve, on the southern coast of Portugal, we were starving. The smoky aroma of a charcoal grill wafted through the open windows of our car, making all our tummies rumble. With a decisive turn of the wheel, my husband pulled up along side the ramshackle hut. We claimed a rickety table where we could watch the grizzled grill guy do his thing. 

He had a basin of whole chickens, which were split open at the backbone, marinating in spicy piri piri sauce. His grill was a simple mesh grate over a huge brick pit filled with glowing charcoal. As he cooked the chickens, he basted them liberally with more piri piri sauce. Best chicken we ever put in our mouths. Seriously.

Many times since that holiday almost 23 years ago, I’ve made piri piri sauce and used it to marinate and baste a variety of meats. Our favorite is chicken, followed closely on by whole fish. The aroma of piri piri sauce being licked by flames from an open charcoal fire is always a great reminder of a beautiful country and a wonderful family holiday in Portugal.

Homemade Piri Piri Sauce

Piri piri sauce makes an excellent marinade for chicken, pork, fish or shrimp. Use more piri piri sauce for basting as you grill the meat and fish. This recipe makes 2 1⁄4 cups or 532ml. 

Ingredients

2.5 oz or 70g hot chili peppers

6 cloves garlic

1⁄4 cup or 60ml fresh lemon juice

1⁄2 cup or 120ml apple cider vinegar 

1⁄2 teaspoon flakey sea salt

11⁄2 cups or 355ml extra virgin olive oil

Method

Cut or pull the stems off of your chili peppers. Put the peppers, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar and salt in your blender.

Blend until until you achieve a homogenous liquid, occasionally scraping the inside of the blender down. Add in the olive oil and blend again.

Marinate chicken and pork for at least one hour or even overnight. Seafood should be marinated only 20­-30 minutes before grilling. Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 16th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter P. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the P recipes below:

• Culinary Cam: A Parade of Pickles, Including Pickled Chard Stems 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Creamy Potato Salad with Crunchy Fennel 
• Blogghetti: Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Bark 
• Food Lust People Love: Homemade Piri Piri Sauce 
• A Messy Kitchen: Layered Berry Panna Cotta
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Palak Paneer Paratha 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Parsley Pesto 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Pork Carnitas (Instant Pot) 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Puneri Batata Vada 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Southern Potato Salad 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Creamy Potato Salad with Crunchy Fennel 

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly
C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw
D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing
E: Everything Pizza Tartin
F: Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs
G: Grape Juice Jigglers
H: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts
I: Raspberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
J: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops 

K. Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs 

L. Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry 

M. Fresh Mint Sauce 

N. Miso Butter Noodles 

O. Spicy Orange Braised Short Ribs 

P. Homemade Piri Piri Sauce - this post!

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Brie and Scallion Muffins #MuffinMonday

These Brie and scallion muffins are the perfect small batch savory breakfast or snack on the go. Pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy!

We had a family debate a few years back about what to call spring onions. In most Asian cookbooks they are called scallions. When I was growing up, my grandmothers called them green onions. In the UK they are often called salad onions. And as mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph, spring onion is yet another name. 

All I can tell you at this point is that I love them. They add a fragrant herby-ness to recipes along with a delightful mellow onion flavor. Plus, they are a beautiful green garnish atop any dish. 

My other favorite thing about them is how they will grow again if you cut the green parts off, leaving behind the white and roots. Pop them in some water and watch how they take off! After a week or so, I use a chopstick to poke holes in a soil-filled flower pot and add the onions. You will have an endless supply all summer!

Brie and Scallion Muffins

This recipe makes a small batch of 6 muffins but is easily doubled to make 12. If you don’t have Brie, substitute Camembert or another soft cheese. 

Ingredients 

3 1/2 oz or 100g Brie

3 green onions/scallions, green part only

1 1/2 cups or 188g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

A couple generous grinds black pepper

1/3 cup or 80ml canola or other light oil, plus more for oiling the pan

1/2 cup or 120ml buttermilk

1 egg

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 6-cup muffin pan by lightly brushing it with oil. As you will see from the photos below, I have misplaced by 6-cup pan. Squint and pretend you don't see the three empty holes later, okay? 

Cut the Brie into small cubes, trimming the rind, if desired. I like to leave some on so tend to trim the sides so there’s only rind on the bottom and top. Set aside at least six cubes to top the muffins with before baking.

Slice your scallions/green onion tops into small pieces and set aside a little pile for garnish. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper.

Add the Brie cubes to the flour mixture a few at a time, stirring between additions, so that they are coated by the flour and won’t stick back together. 

Fold in the bigger pile of scallions. 

In a smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk and egg.

Fold your wet ingredients into your dry ones. 

Divide the batter between the muffin cups and top with the reserved cubes of Brie and sliced scallions.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

It’s the very last Monday of July so that means it’s time to celebrate Muffin Monday! Check out the muffin links below:

• Banana Oatmeal Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Brie and Scallion Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Almond Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Peach and Lavender Crumb Muffins from A Messy Kitchen

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Fresh Blackberry Tarts

Sweet summer berries are the star in these fresh blackberry tarts baked in puff pastry with a hint of balsamic, honey and sea salt. Treat yourself and serve them with thick pouring cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The best thing about summer is all of the fresh produce that is suddenly available from either local sources or at least ones that don’t add airmiles to the price. I think we can all agree that anything picked nearby tastes more like it should since it’s allowed to ripen on the vine or bush instead of in the hold of a truck or airplane.

In the Channel Islands, there are blackberry bushes growing wild! Here they are called brambles and despite the vicious thorns, we wait eagerly for the berries to ripen so we can pick them. Nothing beats free fruit, am I right?

Fresh Blackberry Tarts

Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry sheets come in a box of two with a total weight of 1.1 lbs or 490g. I used only one sheet for these four tarts.

Ingredients for four individual tarts

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed but chilled (I used Pepperidge Farm, see note above)

12 oz or 340g fresh blackberries

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 teaspoons butter

Optional to serve: thick pouring cream or vanilla ice cream.

Method

In a mixing bowl, toss the blackberries and the cornstarch together. 

Add in the honey, vinegar, sugar and salt. Stir gently to combine. Set aside to macerate for 10 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and prepare a baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner. 

Gently unroll the puff pastry and cut it into four equal pieces. Place them in the prepared pan. Fold the sides up slightly, pinching them together to form an outside crust. If the sides don’t want to stick together, wet them with just a drop or two of water to help them adhere to each other.  

Give the blackberry bowl a good stir then divide the mixture between the four crusts. 

Top with 1/2 teaspoon butter each, cut into little bits.

Bake in your preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until the crusts are puffed and browned.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool. As you can see, some of the juice ran out but the tarts were still juicy and the blackberries were soft.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Serve with fresh cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes with blackberries! Check out the links below. 

• Blackberry and Apple Slaw from Palatable Pastime
• Blackberry Cobbler from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Blackberry Ricotta Pizza from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Fresh Blackberry Margarita from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Fresh Blackberry Tarts from Food Lust People Love
• Jamun/Indian Blackberry Chia Jam from Sneha's Recipe
• Roasted Blackberry & Rosemary Goat Cheese from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Summer Berries Flaugnarde + Olallie Gin Fizz from Culinary Cam

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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