This Pili Pili Sauce or Pepper Sauce is made using ingredients that are very common in Tanzania. The most common hot peppers here are scotch bonnets. The color will also vary from red, to orange, to green based on the peppers you use.

If you are looking to spice things up and expand your horizons beyond the Tabasco and Sriracha, try this Pili Pili Mbuzi Sauce. Made with Scotch Bonnet Peppers (Bonney peppers/Bahama mama/or goat peppers hence the Swahili name Goat= Mbuzi).

Pili Pili in Swahili means “spicy spicy” not to be confused with “Peri Peri” or “Peri Peri” which means Pepper Pepper a word, which the Portuguese borrowed during the Portuguese Colonialism of Africa.  

One of the most popular Tanzanian street foods is the Sumni Sumni, tiny pieces of marinated beef meat and fat, skewered into bicycle spokes and grilled over charcoal.  “Sumni Sumni”  literally translated in Swahili means small change.  

Street food is generally cheap and traditionally a skewer was sold for a sumni ~one cent~ 1¢. It comes accompanied by bowls of tamarind sauce and  pili-pili sauce for dipping made with the Scotch bonnet pepper. tomato and garlic.  

My version is slightly different, but oh so spicy!  Hot and fiery, and gloriously unpredictable adrenaline pumping, we used to drizzle this over pizza at the family restaurant- aptly named The Serengeti.  

At home we like to drizzle this over grilled cheese sandwiches, grilled fish, flame grilled chicken, viazi Karai or bhajiya’s or simply to zhuzh up takeout meals.

Ingredients:

• 10  red scotch bonnet peppers ( Bonney peppers/Bahama mama/goat peppers or even Habanero )
• 5 garlic cloves peeled
• 1/2  cup white vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
  
  Instructions:

• Remove stems from the peppers.
• Place the peppers, garlic, water, vinegar and salt in pan and cook over a medium flame for 10 -15 minutes. 
• Once cooled, transfer to a blender jar, and blend on high until the mixture is mostly smooth, but still has small pieces of peppers.
• Transfer to a  mason jar, and refrigerate.