Spicy Mozambican Shrimp: Camarões Pili Pili

Mozambique, this former colony of Portugal, still has Portuguese influence; as for one thing, the Portuguese brought chili peppers from South America to the territories they colonized and that later became the independent country of Mozambique, but the influences have flowed in the other direction too. Compare this Portuguese shrimp recipe,* but in Mozambique they use very large shrimp (prawns). The shrimp for this in Mozambique are usually grilled or broiled, but you can use a skillet. Of course, you can make the shrimp as spicy hot as you choose, and if you don't make ''pili pili sauce," you can use readily available sambal oelek or just use some ground cayenne pepper. Serve over rice.

Ingredients:

1 pound very large or jumbo shrimp, tail intact 

1 to 3 tablespoons pili pili (piri piri) sauce** (you can substitute sambal oelek, or cayenne pepper)

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil or peanut oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste (this is heresy, but you can use thick ketchup, but it won't be the same)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

You can buy fresh jumbo shrimp and peel the shell off, except for the tail, and then devein the shrimp, or you can buy already cleaned shrimp. Rinse the shrimp and let them drain on paper towels, making sure they are well dried before putting them into the marinade mixture. Meanwhile, in a bowl, add the pili pili sauce or other hot chili seasoning. I hope you'll make the pili pili sauce, and it's very simple to do. Add the chopped garlic, oil, tomato paste/ketchup, lemon juice and ground black pepper. Add the shrimp and make sure all are coated with the pepper sauce mixture. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour, but 3 or 4 hours is better (mix the shrimp around a little occasionally). Use a large skillet, and you can just use a paper towel dipped in oil to rub and coat the skillet with oil, then heat the skillet over medium heat. I'm sure the relatively large amount of oil added to the marinade is used to keep the shrimp moist and to prevent burning and sticking, so the 1/4 cup of oil is not a mistake; in fact, I've seen recipes with even more oil. Add the shrimp to the hot skillet and cook them a couple of minutes on both sides until done (do not overcook). Of course, you can also cook the shrimp under your broiler, removing and then turning them to cook them on both sides. Serve with rice and some pili pili sauce on the side. A cold beer can cool the spicy effect on your mouth.

* Link to the recipe for Portuguese-style shrimp: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/12/portuguese-style-spicy-shrimp-camaroes.html

 

** For the easy recipe to make "pili pili" sauce (also called "piri piri" sauce), here is the link to the recipe:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/09/african-hot-pepper-sauce-pili-pili-piri.html

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Visor-This word is closely related to "vision," "video" and "visa," all words of Latin derivation borrowed by English ("vision" borrowed via Latin-based French), and it is also distantly related to "wit," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Visor" goes back to Indo European "weid/uyd," which had the notion "to see, to know from seeing." This gave Latin "videre," a verb meaning, "to see, to look at," and its participle form gave Latin the noun "visus," meaning, "a sight, a vision, an appearance, the process of seeing or looking." This gave Old French "vis," which meant "appearance;" thus also, "face" (one's appearance").^ This gave Old French "visiere" (modern French "visière"), meaning, "a protective part of a helmet that can be opened and closed" (German borrowed the word as "Visier" for the protective helmet part). The French dialect that developed in England among descendants of the Normans had "viser," and English borrowed the word in the first part of the 1300s.   

 

^ The same notion is present in German "Gesicht," which is literally "sight" (notice the close relationship of German "sicht" and English "sight"); that is, "that which is seen;" as in the expression, "He was a sight for sore eyes;" thus, it became the word for "face." English borrowed "face" (it's a Latin-based word), and it replaced English "ansien" ("that which is seen;" thus, "appearance, face;" the "sien" part now modern "seen").