Pili Pili - a pepper infused oil

Picture a farmer market in a rural village in France. As you walk along the stalls you pass a table - about 4 meters wide and 1 meter deep - absolutely full with bags of herbs and spices. This is where I discovered Pili Pili.

The basic recipe of Pili Pili ( also known as piri piri, pily pily, etc. ) is:
- (olive) oil
- chili peppers
    Traditionally the Capsicum frutescens 'African Devil' is used, but any spicy pepper will do.
- herbs and spices

Step 1: What does it do?

Pili Pili is an oil infusion. By making an infusion you add flavours you like to your oil. In this case the main goal is to make your oil spicy. The herbs and spices aren't really necessary, but do add a lot of flavour to the oil, which makes reactions go from "Hmm, this is nice and spicy..." to "Woah! Where did you get this?".

In France I've seen it being used as an accompaniment to bread, this makes a simple but delicious appetizer. It's also a great way to spice up a pizza, I really prefer this to Tobasco or any other ready-made product.

Whether the Pili Pili is just spicy or more flavoursome, it can of course be used as an ingredient during cooking as well.

Comments

[jessyratfink]

Sounds fantastic! I will have to give this a try. :D

[El Colombiano]

thanks man.. I will try this on saturday. 2 weeks are spicy ? what if i use ghost pepper? should it take them back before 2 weeks from the oil? what would you suggest for spicies chillies? thanks again

[lurwah]

I wouldn't take the peppers out. If possible just use less of the infused oil. If even that is too much you will probably want to dilute a small amount of pilipili with neutral oil in a separate container. Don't dilute everything at once, just enough for one dish.
Good luck, let me know how it turns out!