I love the smell, taste and texture of spicy peppers — but there's a limit to how much I can tolerate. I enjoy the heat, but not so much that it burns my mouth, leaving me wondering if I will ever be able to eat again. This is where the peri-peri chili pepper — also known as pili-pili or piri-piri — comes in.
The Portuguese were introduced to peri-peri long ago in southern Africa, in what is now Mozambique. The South African restaurant group Nando's Peri-Peri uses the chile in its fusion of Portuguese and Mozambique cuisines, which I tasted for the first time at a Nando's in downtown Washington, D.C. I became enamored with its sauces. While the pepper packs heat, it's not as hot as a habanero.
I have never found the chili pepper here in its fresh form, only in bottled sauces, so I was happy to learn more about it from Rochelle Schatzl, a South African cookbook author who directs research and development for Nando's Inc. She has traveled all over Africa to research peri-peri.
"It has a very light, fresh citrus-herbal flavor that blends well … with most other foods, whether savory or sweet," Schatzl told me. "The specific capsaicin profile of the African bird's eye chili (peri-peri) means that you only taste a bit of heat at the end, as opposed to an overkill of blazing fire that destroys the flavor of what you're about to eat."
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