Piri Piri Starfish (Portugal Found) – Tessa Kiros

A book review by Franz Scheurer

Portugal’s rustic food and wine occupies a very special place in my heart and to find a writer who does the country and food justice is a very joyous occasion.

Tessa Kiros was born in London to a Finnish mother and a Greek Cypriot father. The family moved to South Africa when she was four and she started travelling in her late teens. During her travels she met her husband Giovanni and now lives in Tuscany, although she moved her whole family to Portugal for a short while to research and live this book.

Piri Piri Starfish, subtitled Portugal Found, perfectly describes the Portuguese and their love for life and the food that doesn’t just sustain them but seems to be their national pastime. She captures the culture, gives some traditional recipes and puts her unique slant onto some of the others.

I like a cookbook I can browse. I don’t like having to read it page by page, losing the thread if I don’t. Piri Piri Starfish is a browsing book. You can open it at random, say page 108, and stumble upon ‘Port with Clams’, an old-fashioned dish, often cooked in the typically Portuguese round copper cataplana with its tightly fitting lid, making it possible to braise over an open fire and turn the vessel at any time. It sounds like a strange combination but it rewards with sublime flavours. There’s another terrific recipe for seafood cooked in the cataplana on page 69.

Of course a foray into Portuguese food must start with piri piri (also called peri peri) a small, red chilli, originally from Angola, embraced by the Portuguese, made into Piri Piri oil and sauce and drizzled over just about anything. Everyone has probably tried ‘Grilled Chicken Piri Piri’ but you should still try Kiros’ version on page 103, a great recipe originating from Mozambique. If you think Chorizo is typically Spanish then you need to try Chourico, the Portuguese version, which is a little courser and a tad hotter. The recipe on page 32 for ‘Chourico with Green Peppers and Port’ does the humble sausage justice. Tessa shares the Australian love of prawns and her interpretation of ‘Prawns with Piri Piri, Whisky and Lemon’ is found on page 43. Greeks first introduced me to Purslane and Tessa’s ‘Purslane Soup’ on page 89 is wonderful, a real winter heart starter. Bread is very important to Portuguese culture, as ingrained as Fado, the local, melancholic music, and ‘Pork Migas’ shows you how to use bread in cooking. Lovers of offal are introduced to the ‘tripeiros’, the tripe eaters, inhabitants of Portugal’s rugged north and rewarded with a ‘Tripe with White Beans’ recipe on page 184.

Lisbon’s Pastelaria de Belém is world-famous for its Portuguese custard tarts and a traditional recipe for ‘Pasteis de Nata’ is found on pages 214 and 215. Those who’ve spent time in Portugal will feel a real affinity with this book. The rest can simply cook up some ‘Churros’, page 233, nibble on them while having a look at the great photo on pages 160 and 161 (more descriptive than a thousand words and start planning your next holiday.

Published by Murdoch Books

ISBN: 978-1740459099