SHRIMP MUQUECA A LA BAHIA /MUQUECA DE CAMARÃO

Yield: 4 people.

Ingredients:

2 lb of medium size shrimp peeled, and deveined .

3-4 large fried shrimp to garnish the dish (seazon it with salt and pepper and pan fry them until cooked) Or if you prefer cook them into the juices and fish them later to garnish the dish.

3 ripe tomatoes without seeds diced,  +3 slices to garnish

2 onions diced

1 green bell pepper diced

2-3 cloves of garlic 

1/2 cup of scallions chopped

1/2 cup cilantro chopped

1/3 cup of azeite de dendê  (palm oil)

2  hot chili pepper (optional)  I use pimenta biquinho  3-4 blended into  the mixture, and to garnish (information about pimenta biquinho at the blog).

Juices of 2 lime

14 fl oz  of coconut milk fresh or canned 

2 tbs canola oil or extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Add oil to a sauce pan and saute onions, green bell pepper until half way caramelized. Add garlic and saute for 40 seconds. Remove from heat, transfer to a plate and let it cool. In the same pan add tomatoes, lime juice, salt pepper and smash a little bit everything together with a wooden spoon. Add clean shrimp and place at the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, blend together coconut milk and cooked onion mixture, 1/2 of the cilantro chopped and 1/2 of the scallions chopped. Add the blended mixture to the shrimp and let it complete its 30 minutes at refrigerator marinating. You can cook it right the way, but I like marinating it for 30 minutes. Add dendê oil, mix everything together, add chili peppers and cook for 15 minutes. Meanwhile if you have a clay pot, heat it at the stove top or oven, and when the muqueca (stew) is ready, transfer it to the clay pot. Remove the chili, and Garnish it  as you like. Serve it immediately with white rice, pirão and farofa. (recipe follows).

PIRÃO

With a ladle, remove 1/2 of the juices of the muqueca transferring it to a sauce pan.

Add 1 cup of water, a pinch of salt. Bring to the heat and stir in slowly 1 cup of farinha de mandioca (yucca toasted flour), mixing constantly with a wooden spoon until it comes out of the bottom of the pan. It is like a gravy. Some people likes it thin others like it thick, thin it up with more liquid or thicken up with more flour.

FAROFA:

2 tbs butter

pinch of salt

1 cup of farinha de mandioca (yucca toasted flour)

In a skillet melt the butter and add farinha de mandioca and salt. Mix everything together and let it toast for 40 seconds stirring. If you want to do a yellow farofa, add 1 tbs of dendê oil and mix it.

Voilà.