Mozambican Piri-Piri Grilled Prawns with Coconut Rice and Charred Lime

Make the piri-piri sauce: combine the red chillies, garlic, lemon juice and zest, vinegar, smoked paprika, salt and oregano in a blender. Blitz to a coarse paste, then stream in the olive oil with the motor running until you have a loose, vivid red sauce. Set half aside in a bowl for serving.

Ingredients

• For the piri-piri marinade and baste (serves 4):
• 8-10 fresh red bird's-eye (piri-piri) chillies, stemmed — adjust to your heat tolerance
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• Juice and zest of 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 100ml (scant 1/2 cup) good olive oil
• 60g (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
• For the prawns:
• 1 kg (2.2 lb) large raw shell-on prawns, butterflied along the back, vein removed
• For the coconut rice:
• 350g (1.75 cups) basmati or long-grain rice, rinsed until the water runs clear
• 400ml (1 can) full-fat coconut milk
• 300ml water
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 bay leaf
• To serve:
• 3 limes, halved, for charring
• Large handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• Crusty bread, for mopping the chilli butter

Instructions

1. Make the piri-piri sauce: combine the red chillies, garlic, lemon juice and zest, vinegar, smoked paprika, salt and oregano in a blender. Blitz to a coarse paste, then stream in the olive oil with the motor running until you have a loose, vivid red sauce. Set half aside in a bowl for serving.
2. To the other half of the sauce, beat in the softened butter until you have a glossy chilli-butter baste. Set aside at room temperature.
3. Marinate the prawns: place the butterflied prawns in a large bowl and toss with 3 tablespoons of the plain (butter-free) piri-piri sauce. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes — no longer, or the lemon acid will start to 'cook' the delicate flesh.
4. Start the coconut rice: put the rinsed rice in a heavy pot with the coconut milk, water, salt and bay leaf. Stir once, bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to the lowest heat, cover tightly and cook 12 minutes.
5. Off the heat, leave the rice covered and undisturbed for a further 10 minutes to steam, then remove the bay leaf and fluff gently with a fork — the grains should be separate, fragrant and faintly sweet with coconut.
6. Heat a charcoal grill until the coals glow white-hot, or a heavy cast-iron grill pan until smoking — Mozambican prawns are defined by real fire and char.
7. Grill the prawns shell-side down first for 2-3 minutes, then flip and grill the flesh side for 1-2 minutes, basting generously with the chilli-butter at every turn. They are done the moment the flesh turns opaque white and the shells are pink and lightly charred — do not overcook.
8. In the last minute, lay the lime halves cut-side down on the hottest part of the grill and char them until deeply caramelised.
9. Pile the grilled prawns onto a large warm platter and pour over any remaining chilli-butter from the basting bowl.
10. Serve immediately with the mound of coconut rice, the charred lime halves for squeezing, a heavy scatter of fresh coriander, the reserved bowl of plain piri-piri sauce for the brave, and plenty of crusty bread to mop up the butter.
11. Piri-piri prawns are the defining dish of the Mozambican coast — a 2,500-kilometre stretch of the Indian Ocean famous for some of the finest prawns in the world, landed at ports like Beira, Quelimane and the capital Maputo. The dish is the delicious meeting point of three histories: the small fiery bird's-eye chilli, called 'piri-piri' in the Swahili-influenced languages of the region, was carried into Africa by Portuguese traders from the Americas; the Portuguese colonial presence brought garlic, lemon, olive oil and the love of grilling; and the coconut palms and seafood are the gift of the tropical African coast itself. Today no trip to Mozambique is complete without a long lazy lunch at a beachside 'barraca' — a simple grill shack — where prawns are split, slathered in the house piri-piri, cooked over coals and eaten with the hands as the tide goes out. The dish travelled with Mozambican and Portuguese cooks around the world and inspired the global piri-piri chicken chains, but the original — smoky, citrus-sharp, dripping with chilli butter, eaten beside the ocean — remains unbeatable.