Caruru Paraense

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-liter pot
• •Small saucepan
• •Blender or immersion blender
• •Fine sieve
• •Wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Desalt the shrimp

   Rinse the dried shrimp under cool water, then cover with fresh water and soak for 20 minutes. Drain and taste one. If salt hits before shrimp flavor, soak 10 minutes more and drain again. Dried shrimp is seasoning and food at once, so a gente controls the salt now instead of trying to rescue the pot later.

   Buy peeled dried shrimp if you can. If yours has tough shells or heads, remove them after soaking and simmer those trimmings in the broth, then strain well.
2. 2

   Make shrimp broth

   Put 1 cup of the soaked shrimp in a small saucepan with 5 cups fresh water. Simmer for 15 minutes, until the liquid turns cloudy pink and smells deeply of shrimp. Let it sit 5 minutes, then blend until the shrimp breaks down into a rough broth; strain only if you see grit or shell. Measure 4 cups broth and keep 1 cup aside for the farinha. This is why the stew tastes like shrimp from the inside, not like salt thrown at the end.

   No blender? Chop that softened shrimp as finely as you can and keep the broth. The texture will be a little rougher, but still honest.
3. 3

   Prepare the okra

   Wash the okra, dry it well, trim the caps, and slice it into 1/2-inch rounds. Dry first so the pot doesn't start watery. The baba is not the enemy here. It's the body of the caruru, but extra water makes it take longer to pegar ponto.

4. 4

   Build the refogado

   Warm the neutral oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion and pimenta-de-cheiro and cook, stirring now and then, until the onion turns soft and see-through, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic for 1 minute, just until you smell it, then add the tomato, cheiro-verde, chicória if using, and 2 tablespoons of dendê. Cook until the tomato collapses and the oil begins to show at the edges. This base is the flavor floor. Rush it and the whole pot tastes thin.

5. 5

   Cook the okra

   Add the sliced okra and the remaining soaked shrimp, keeping a few whole shrimp aside for finishing if you want them visible. Stir to coat everything in the refogado and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the okra darkens, turns glossy, and starts making sticky threads when you drag the spoon through it. Stir from the bottom, but don't beat it to mush. You want stew, not anonymous green paste.

6. 6

   Simmer to body

   Pour in 3 cups of the shrimp broth and scrape the bottom of the pot. Bring to a gentle ferver, then cook uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until the okra is tender and the mixture moves slowly when you pull the spoon through it. This is where the baba turns silky and the dried shrimp softens into the pot.

7. 7

   Add the farinha

   Whisk the sifted cassava flour into the reserved 1 cup shrimp broth until smooth. Pour it into the pot slowly, stirring the whole time. Simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, until the caruru thickens, loses any dry flour taste, and a spoon leaves a track for a second before the stew closes over. Farinha thickens when it hydrates and cooks; dump it in dry and it clumps, add too much and you've made paste for patching a wall.

   Stop before it gets stiff. Caruru should mound on rice and still relax on the plate. If it stands like cement, loosen it with a splash of water or shrimp broth.
8. 8

   Finish and serve

   Fold in the jambu, if using, and the last tablespoon of dendê. Simmer for 2 minutes, just until the jambu wilts and turns glossy. Add salt only now, because the shrimp has been seasoning the pot from the beginning. Finish with cheiro-verde and the reserved whole shrimp. Serve with white rice and a little farinha d'água on the side. The caruru should be thick, glossy, green, orange at the edges from dendê, and full of visible shrimp and okra.

   Jambu goes in at the end so its paralisia, that little mouth-tingle, stays alive. Boil it for ages and you flatten the thing you bought it for.

Chef Tips

• •Camarão seco varies wildly in salt. Taste after soaking and salt the pot only at the end. If you salt early, the dried shrimp may punish you for your confidence.
• •This is the paraense branch, not the baiana one. No peanuts, no cashews, no bread. Bahia has its own beautiful pot. Here, the body comes from okra, shrimp broth, dendê, and farinha.
• •Use fine cassava flour for thickening, not tapioca starch. Farinha gives the stew its Pará texture. Tapioca starch turns glossy and elastic in a way that belongs somewhere else.
• •The honest shortcut: if dried shrimp isn't available, use 1 pound fresh shrimp, simmer the shells in 5 cups water for 20 minutes, and add the chopped shrimp in the last 5 minutes of cooking. It will be sweeter and less deep, but still comida de verdade. A powdered cube is not the shortcut.
• •If you can't find pimenta-de-cheiro, use a small mild fresh chile and a little extra chopped cilantro stem. It won't smell exactly the same. That's the cost, named plainly.
• •Make the full pot. Festive food earns its keep in leftovers, and this one tastes rounder the next day after the farinha, shrimp, and dendê have settled into each other.

Advance Preparation

• •The dried shrimp can be rinsed, soaked, and drained up to 1 day ahead. Keep it covered in the fridge.
• •The shrimp broth can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Taste it before using; if it is very salty, dilute with water.
• •Wash and dry the okra up to 1 day ahead, but slice it close to cooking so it doesn't get wet and tired in the bowl.
• •Caruru keeps 3 days in the fridge and tastes better on day two or three. Reheat gently with a splash of water. Add jambu only when reheating if you want the mouth-tingle to stay lively.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 530g)