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Mozambican Pork Prego with Coconut Cream and Local Peri-Peri

Thin slices of pork are cooked hot and fast, soaked in that glorious Mozambican combination of garlic, peri-peri, lemon and coconut cream, then piled onto fresh rolls with enough sauce to make napkins completely useless.

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Prep

30min

Cook

60min

Total

90min

Level

medium

Method

Skottel

There are meals that are planned, measured and carefully executed.

And then there is pork prego in Mozambique — the kind of meal that usually starts with someone saying, “Let’s just make something quick,” and ends with everyone standing around the fire, licking sauce off their fingers, sweating slightly from the peri-peri, and pretending they are not going back for a third helping.

This version is simple, messy and absolutely worth it. Thin slices of pork are cooked hot and fast, soaked in that glorious Mozambican combination of garlic, peri-peri, lemon and coconut cream, then piled onto fresh rolls with enough sauce to make napkins completely useless. The coconut cream does two very important things: it softens the punch of the chilli just enough to keep you alive, and it turns the sauce into something rich, creamy and dangerous.

Use local peri-peri if you can. The proper stuff. The bottle that looks harmless but has ruined many confident men around a braai. Add a cold beer, a packet of chips on the side, and preferably a view of the sea, and you have yourself one of those basic meals that somehow tastes better than anything you could have overcomplicated.

Ingredients

6 Servings

For the pork

  • 600 gPork Fillet or Neck steaks, Sliced and buttterflied, tenderise with whatever object you can comfortably hit it with
  • 3 tbspLocal Mozambican Peri Peri, Use sparingly, this stuff is normally hot
  • 6 cloveGarlic
  • 50 mlFresh lemon juice
  • 1 tbspolive oil
  • 1 tspPaprika
  • to tasteSalt and Black pepper
  • 1 canCoconut cream
  • 1 tbspButter

For serving

  • 6 piecePortugues pao (or fresh rolls if you are not in moz)
  • to tastePeri Peri sauce
  • to tasteButter or mayonaise

Equipment

  • Skottel or Paella pan
  • SHARP knife

Method

  1. 1

    Marinate the pork Place the sliced pork in a bowl. Add the peri-peri sauce, garlic, lemon juice, oil, paprika, salt and pepper. Mix everything together properly so the pork is well coated. Leave it to marinate for at least 30 minutes. A few hours is better. Overnight is excellent, but that requires planning, and we are not always those people.

  2. 2

    Cook it hot and fast Heat a pan, skottel, or flat plate over medium-high heat. Add a little oil. Fry the pork in batches so it browns instead of steams. You want colour on the meat, not sad grey camp food. Cook for a few minutes on each side until just cooked through. Remove the pork and set it aside.

  3. 3

    Make the sauce In the same pan, add the coconut cream and scrape up all the sticky bits from the bottom. That is where the flavour lives. Add a little extra peri-peri if you want more heat. Stir in the butter if using, and let the sauce bubble gently until slightly thickened. Taste and adjust with more lemon, salt, pepper or peri-peri.

  4. 4

    Bring it together Return the pork to the pan and coat it in the coconut peri-peri sauce. Let it simmer for a minute or two so the pork takes on the flavour. Do not overcook it. Pork can go from juicy to boot leather while you are busy looking for the braai tongs.

  5. 5

    Build the pregos Slice the rolls and toast them lightly if you can. Butter them, mayo them, or leave them plain. Pile the pork onto the rolls and spoon over extra sauce. Add herbs if using. Serve immediately, preferably with cold drinks and people who appreciate messy food.

Tips

  • →Marinating for longer is better, but do what you can.
Mozambican Pork Prego with Coconut Cream and Local Peri-Peri | Travelling on Gravel