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“Camarão na moranga” is a typical dish of the Brazilian coast, delicious and impressive for special occasions. The recipe, it seems, was invented around 1945 in Ubatuba, a town along the northern coast of state of São Paulo.
For over 20 years the Colony of Fishermen “Z-23” organizes in Bertioga (a town along the northern coast of state of São Paulo near Ubatuba) one of the most important Brazilian coastal cooking festivals (August weekends) – “A Festa do Camarão na Moranga” – a great opportunity to try the countless versions of this wonderful dish.
Pumpkin is a Central American vegetable very common in Brazil. It is versatile and is used to make a infinite number of sweet and savory recipes.
Ingredients
• 3 Kg flat pumpkin (sweet pumpkin)
For the prawns in cream sauce:
• 1 Kg medium prawns
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• 1 small onion chopped
• 600 g tomato purée
• salt and ground pepper or chilli pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 200 ml whipping (heavy) cream
• 200 ml coconut milk
• 500 g requeijão or cheese cream
Garnish:
• large sized prawns
• salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 50 ml cognac
Preparation method
Preparation of the pumpkin:
- Wash the pumpkin and cut the “lid” to make the pumpkin into a “bowl”.
- Scrape the inside with a spoon to remove seeds.
- Bake the pumpkin at 120°C for about 1 hour, until the pulp is soft.
Preparation of the prawns in cream sauce:
- Sauté the onion and the garlic finely chopped in oil and butter.
- Add the tomato purée, the bay leaf, salt, black pepper and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the peeled prawns and cook a few minutes.
- Dissolve the flour in a little of coconut milk or whipping (heavy) cream.
- Add the whipping (heavy) cream, the coconut milk and flour dissolved to the mixture, a little at a time, and stir frequently until the cream is thickened.
- Season with salt and black pepper; remove and discard the bay leaf.
To assemble the dish:
- Fill the baked pumpkin with the prawns in cream sauce and the cheese cubes.
- Bake the filled pumpkin at 180° C until the cheese has melted. It takes about 15 minutes.
- Decorate the filled pumpkin with prawns sautéed with olive oil and garlic and flambéed with cognac.
- Pumpkin is not only a bowl but is part of the dish so, serve the pulp of the pumpkin with the prawns in cream sauce.To serve with white rice.
Yield: 4 – 6 servings.
Posted on: 11 November 2011
Sou arquiteto, nascida no Brasil e meu pai é italiano.