Last autumn we got an invitation from our friends Steffi and Vicente to eat with them traditional Brazilian Pumpkin with Shrimp – Camarão na Moranga. I was really curious, how this dish will turn out, especially because I couldn’t even imagine how this will look like, how it will be prepared and how it will taste. This dinner went beyond my all expectations!
Pumpkin with Shrimp is without the doubt the most spectacular and delicious dish from Brazil we have eaten so far. It’s also one of the best ways to serve shrimp to a larger group of people. If you take a large pumpkin you can feed the entire party!
The traditional recipe uses a Brazilian cheese requeijao which is very hard to find abroad. You can substitute it with cream cheese and the dish will still turn out really good!
Steffi and Vicente – thanks very much for your invitation, you are amazing hosts. Your recipes are very special to us! We cannot wait to try more dishes from Brazil!
Camarão na Moranga - Brazilian Pumpkin with Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 kg prawns small
- 2 limes (from Brazil)
- ground pepper
- 1 any edible pumpkin or red kuri squash large, or 6 small
- 1 tbsp Maggi Fondor
- 200 g Requeijão (substitute: Philadelphia)
- 2 tbsp oil vegatable
- 3 onions small
- 1 garlic clove pressed
- 3 tomatos diced
- 1 chili red
- 2 broth cubes vegatable
- 3 tbsp flour
- 400 ml cream of coconut
- 200 g cream
- 1 bunch parsley chopped
- 0,5 bunch spring onion chopped
- 100 g parmesan grated
- 800-1000 g rice
Instructions
Marinate the shrimps
- In one bowl mix lime juice and 1 pinch ground pepper.
- Add prawns to the mixture and set aside for at least 10 minutes.
Prepare the pumpkin
- Wash the pumpkin.
- Using a sharp knife remove the top of the pumpkin and set aside.
- With a large metal spoon scoop out the seeds of the pumpkin. Make sure that you leave pumpkin insides. We will eat it!
- Rub in inside the pumpkin with Maggi Fondor.
- Cook pumpkin until tender (for about 15-20minutes) in the upright position in a salty water. Test if the pumpkin is ready by piercing the flesh with a skewer or a fork.
- Remove the pumpkin from the water. Run in oil from outside and Requeijão from inside.
Prepare the sauce
- Chop onions very finely, chilli (how much you prefer) and tomatoes, leaving out the seeds.
- Take a pot and fry chopped onions on the medium heat using any vegetable oil until golden brown. Add garlic and fry it another minute.
- Add prawns with the lime marinade to the pot and fry together for another 10 minutes.
- In a separate bowl mix the cream of coconut with flour until smooth and pour it into the pan. Add immediately diced tomatoes, chopped chilli and broth cubes. Cook the sauce until the broth cubes dissolve (around 3 minutes).
- Turn off the heat.
- Add cream, parsley and spring onion. Stir to combine all ingredients.
- Set the rice to cook in salty water.
Last steps
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
- Pour the sauce into the pumpkin until the pumpkin is completely filled.
- Sprinkle the parmesan on the top of the sauce.
- Bake the pumpkin until the cheese is melted and bubbling with golden brown patches.
- Serve with rice in the side.
