Mozambican Piri-Piri Grilled Prawns with Fresh Lime and Garlic Butter

Butterfly the prawns: using kitchen shears, cut through the shell along the back from head to tail, then slice into the flesh about halfway down and pull out the dark vein. Leaving the shell on protects the meat from the fire and carries far more flavor.

Serves 4 as an appetizer

Ingredients

• 2 pounds large head-on prawns or jumbo shrimp, shell-on
• 10 fresh red piri-piri or bird's eye chiles, stemmed
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Juice of 3 limes, plus extra limes cut into wedges for serving
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• Crusty bread, for mopping

Instructions

1. Butterfly the prawns: using kitchen shears, cut through the shell along the back from head to tail, then slice into the flesh about halfway down and pull out the dark vein. Leaving the shell on protects the meat from the fire and carries far more flavor.
2. Pound the chiles, garlic, smoked paprika and sea salt in a mortar until they collapse into a coarse red paste, or pulse briefly in a small food processor.
3. Work half the chili paste into the softened butter along with 1 tablespoon of the lime juice until evenly streaked. Set this piri-piri butter aside at room temperature.
4. Whisk the remaining chili paste with the olive oil, red wine vinegar and the rest of the lime juice to make the basting marinade.
5. Toss the butterflied prawns with half the marinade, cut sides up so it pools in the split shells, and let them sit for no more than 20 minutes. Any longer and the lime juice begins to cure the flesh and turns it chalky.
6. Build a hot charcoal fire or heat a grill to high. The prawns need fierce, direct heat and a very short cooking time.
7. Lay the prawns cut side down and grill 2 minutes until the flesh is opaque and lightly charred, then flip and grill 2 to 3 minutes more on the shell side, basting with the reserved marinade as they cook.
8. Pull them off the moment the shells turn a deep coral and the tails curl tight — overcooked prawns tighten into rubber within about 30 seconds of being perfect.
9. Pile the prawns on a warm platter, drop spoonfuls of the piri-piri butter over the top so it melts into every split shell, and shower with chopped parsley.
10. Serve immediately with lime wedges and plenty of crusty bread — the puddle of chili butter left on the tray is arguably the best part.
11. Piri-piri is the thread that runs from Mozambique through Portugal and back again: Portuguese traders carried chiles from the Americas to East Africa, where they thrived in the coastal heat and became the small, ferocious peppers Mozambicans call piri-piri, and the resulting grilled prawns then traveled back to Lisbon as a national obsession. Along the beaches of Maputo and Inhambane the dish is cooked over open coals within sight of the water and eaten with hands, bread and cold beer. The technique matters more than the recipe — butterflied shell-on prawns over a genuinely hot fire, off the grill fast — and the heat level is entirely yours to set by counting chiles.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 390 kcal
• Protein: 34g
• Fat: 26g
• Carbohydrates: 5g
• Fiber: 1g
• Sugar: 1g
• Sodium: 880mg