Mozambican tiger prawns in a coconut milk, tomato, and piri piri sauce: the marriage of East African and Portuguese cooking
Origin: Maputo, Mozambique
From the journey of Coconut.
Mozambique is one of the most geographically and historically significant points on the Indian Ocean coastline. The Portuguese established their first East African trading post at Sofala in 1505, recognising its position as the southern anchor of the great Swahili gold trade: the same commercial network that connected Kilwa to Zimbabwe's gold fields and from there to the wider Indian Ocean economy. Over the following 450 years of Portuguese colonial presence (Mozambique achieved independence only in 1975), three distinct culinary streams flowed together on the Mozambican coast: the ancient Swahili-Arab coconut and spice tradition that had been building for centuries; the Portuguese Atlantic trade network that brought piri piri chillies from Brazil (where they had been naturalised from the wild peppers of South America), tomatoes from Mexico, and cassava from the Amazon; and the extraordinary local seafood of the Mozambique Channel; particularly the Tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon) of Sofala Bay, among the largest and most flavoursome in the world. The coconut palm was already established on Mozambique's coast through the Swahili trade network before the Portuguese arrived. The mangrove-lined estuaries of the central coast, Quelimane, Beira, Sofala, created ideal coconut-growing conditions. By the 18th century, coconut plantations stretched the length of the Mozambican coast, supplying both the local population and the export trade in copra (dried coconut flesh) that would become a major Mozambican commodity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Piri piri, Swahili for 'pepper pepper', is the hot chilli paste that the Portuguese introduced from Brazil and that naturalised so thoroughly in East Africa that it is now considered indigenous to Mozambican and Angolan cooking. The Mozambican variety of piri piri (African bird's eye chilli, Capsicum frutescens) is smaller, hotter, and more aromatic than its Brazilian ancestor, having adapted over centuries to local conditions. It is the defining heat source of Mozambican cooking. Camarão com coco is Maputo's most celebrated dish, served in the waterfront restaurants of the Baixa quarter overlooking the Maputo Bay, where enormous piri piri-glazed prawns arrive at the table still sizzling in their shells. The sauce concentrates three centuries of culinary history into a single pan: the Swahili coconut tradition, the Portuguese piri piri introduction, the New World tomato, and the Indian Ocean's finest crustacean. It is one of the great fusion dishes of the African continent.
The piri piri heat level can be adjusted to preference; 2 tablespoons of paste gives moderate heat, 3 tablespoons is assertively hot. The dish is traditionally served with the shells on because the Mozambican tradition is to eat it hands-first, sucking the sauce from the shells. The coconut-piri piri sauce is extraordinary for mopping with bread; make sure there is plenty on the table.
Mapping Culinary History
To explore — select an ingredient below.
To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.
Journey Point Map Key