Moqueca and Farofa: Bringing the taste of Brazil home
I never thought I’d be writing a recipe on my blog. But when I was visiting Bahia in Brazil last winter, I fell in love with one of their traditional dishes called moqueca de camarão. You’ll find this dish on almost every menu in Bahia and you absolutely cannot leave the region without trying it. Now, for those of you who have been to Brazil, I’m sure you quickly noticed how most of their dishes are accompanied with farofa. It doesn’t have much taste but being served a Brazilian dish without farofa is impossible. Brazil was one of those countries I visited that I fell in love with so I decided to bring it to my kitchen.
What’s moqueca de camarão? It’s a shrimp stew, with tomatoes and coconut milk as its main ingredients. What’s farofa? The direct translation is “crumbs” but it’s what we call wheatlets . Here it goes!
salvadorbahiaguide.com
Ingredients for moqueca de camarão
1 or 1.5lbs of shrimp
1 can of coconut milk
4 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 red pepper, sliced (I cut up one pepper but you can cut more if you want)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small onion, sliced
1 tablet of shrimp broth (but I only found fish broth so I used that instead)
Cilantro, salt, pepper to taste (You can also add cayenne pepper if you like spicy)
1 tablespoon of dendê oil (I replaced it with olive oil because that’s what I had)
1. Begin by washing your shrimp and soaking them in salt, 1/2 lemon juice, cilantro and coconut milk (1 can). Let it sit for 30 mins.
2. Sauté your peppers until they soften and then add the onion and garlic. Sauté until onion is transparent.
3. Then add your diced tomatoes and cook well. Add the shrimp cube. Cook until the sauce thickens.
4. Pour your shrimp mixture, dendê oil, salt and pepper. Let it simmer for about 10 mins or until your shrimps are cooked. (Shrimp will take longer to cook if they are not pre-cooked).
5. Add cilantro and remove from heat. Let it sit a few minutes before serving with farofa.
Ingredients for farofa:
Wheatlets (you can find it at the grocery store)
3 teaspoons of butter
Salt and pepper
1. Melt the butter in the pan at medium heat
2. Cook the farofa while constantly stirring.
3. The farofa will be cooked once it’s browned. Add salt and pepper.
Bon appetit! It’s such a tasty dish. Hope you enjoy it!
seymoule de bley?
Thanks. http://calogeromirafoodand.wordpress.com
This recipe sounds great. I will have to look into wheatlets….
Your post is delicious…and is making me want one of those…NOW! lol
Congrats on making FP!
Wheatlets? I LOVE it!
Looks like an amazing recipe. If I get brave, I’m totally trying this one…
As a Brazilian I can say that I am obsessed with Moqueca and Farofa! Love this!
I instantly became obsessed when I tried it for the first time in Salvador. Yum!!
My husband is from Bahia and this is his favorite dish! He likes moqueca de peixe e camarão so I use both tilapia and shrimp when I make it for him. Great post!
I’m Brazilian, living in Italy and guess what’s on the menu for tonight? Moqueca and farofa! Of course it’s the version done in Espirito Santo (a state just South of Bahia where we consider the true moqueca was born) and it doesn’t have any coconut milk nor dende oil in it, which makes it much lighter but still amazingly good (to my taste, even better than the one made in Bahia, but, hey, that’s just me).
)
I’m brazilian and a moqueca lover
It’s the first time I see the recipe in English, nice. I’m in doubt about “wheatlets”. Because farofa it’s not made from wheat, it comes from “yuca flour” (farinha de mandioca). Maybe it’s mine bad translation. Anyway, congrats an enjoy!
Hi Bianca, you’re right but after talking to a few Brazilians in Montreal, they said that wheatlets is very similar to yuca flour and since it’s available in all grocery stores, that’s what I used for this recipe!!
Que delicioso!
Thanks for the great recipe. I cannot wait to try it out.
That sounds amazing! I’ve never tried dende oil, sounds intriguing.
Dende is very strong, but it gives moqueca it’s unique taste! Very afro-brazilian!!!
I don’t eat seafood, what would you recommend in place of that? Maybe firm tofu?
And are the wheatlets just wheat flour? I’m going to make this. I love trying new dishes, and the coconut milk and tomatoes etc sound delicious!
Hmmm, I don’t think I would put tofu. But you can add all sorts of vegetables. Different coloured peppers, carrots, etc… I’m sure it would taste good.
Mmmm, that sounds delicious!
Oh my gosh. Coconuts and shrimp is always delicious! I will be on the look out for this when I travel to Brazil in the next year
Thanks for the heads up!
yum – this looks delicious! Thanks for sharing.
http://www.modestcupboard.wordpress.com
it looks like some kind of Korean Soup. I like it thanks for sharing.
Love it! Makes me miss home.
Will cook it sometime here in Germany to my boyfriend.
mmm….sounds good!
Nice recipe, sounds delicious! But I can’t cook.
It’s relatively easy. I’m sure you can give it a shot!!!
This looks delicious! Haha, although anything with coconut milk and tomatoes sounds great in my book. =P
I can’t wait to try making it, thanks for the great recipe!
Great post to a wonderful Brazillian dish.
I can guarantee: Moqueca from Espírito Santo, another state of Brazil, is much better and delicious than Bahia’s one.
If you wanna know the recipe, access my blog: http://rotascapixabas.com/2011/05/08/maos-ao-alto-isso-e-uma-moqueca/.
Good post,
Tiago
Ha! Tiago!! That’s what everyone from Espiritu Santo says!!! It is good, but I think Bahia’s version has me hooked!!! Go dende!!!!
I’m not from Espirito Santo, and I agree, is much better
Try Moqueca Capixaba, I’m sure you can find it on the Web…
LOL!! Fine Lugon, but you can’t be from Bahia talking like that!! Hahaha!!! I’ll have to look into the moqueca you speak of, de onde é??
o, never mind, de Acre… rsrsrs
Thank u for the delicious recipe. I will try it that way.
I like shrimp I used to cook similar to that one but beside Cilantro I add dill and mint they add good taste to sea food.
THHANK YOUU!
Yummy!! Can’t wait to try this one out…
Wow! I’ve not heard of moqueca de camarão before but I’m hitting the grocer this evening and with your detailed recipe, I should be able to do this
Thanks!
It’s relatively easy! You can do it!!!
Brazilian food is da bomb!
Good to see someone appreciates the amazingness (even made up a word for how amazing it is) of farofa. Being Brazilian (born there), I’d love to try out this recipe and compare it to the real deal ;D
The real deal = my mother’s wonderful cooking.
It looks delicious and worth trying but I don’t know whether there’s farofa in Indonesia.
I’m sure you can find something similar in the grocery stores. You’ll have to do some searching! I’m actually planning a trip to Indonesia this January. Do you suggest any places? I know it will be rainy season but do you think that can hamper my travel there?
Wow…that looks delish! Recipe looks pretty simple.
Brazilian tip for wheatlets:
It gets much tastier if you lightly fry some chopped garlic and bacon in some oil and then add the wheatlets. That’s how my mother does and everybody who tried loves it. \o/
Hope that makes your moqueca even better! Though I eat farofa with everything… hahaha
Next time you come to Brazil, visit the cities along the Rio São Francisco – San Francisco river, or Velho Chico. There are grape farms and some very nice wines made around here, along with all those tradicional dishes – I live in Pernambuco state, but on the border with Bahia, so imagine the mess. Or happiness, for those who enjoy the pleasures of food, like me. =)
And someone mentioned a fish called tilápia – it makes great dishes!
Nice post, and came back soon!
Yes I agree! Since it was my first time, I kept it simple but I’ll definitely spice up the farofa next time I cook it!
Looks excellent! According to Wikipedia and other sources, Farofa is manioc flour. Might be a bit hard to get, unless you try a Caribbean or South American grocer.
You can find wheatlets in all grocery stores. It’s a good substitute!
Looks like an amazing recipe.
<a href=”http://www.p90x-dvd-workout.com”>p90x home fitness </a>
Looks delicious! I would like to have a try tonight! Thank you for your sharing!
Sounds slammin’! Can’t wait to make it and dig in. (P.S. Thanks for suggesting substitute ingredients.)
Recipe sounds fabulous. Will need to find out what wheatlets are…
Wait! Wheatlets are semolina (I too can Google). For Aussies, we have semolina.
I took wheatlets from the pack I bought to make the recipe. It’s called semoule de blé in French! But yes, semolina is the same I believe.
Your post is delicious…and is making me want one of those…NOW! lol
Congrats on making FP!
I love Brazil’s food!
I love Brasil. Period! I fell in love with the country last year. Looking forward to going back soon.
It seems nice and tasty dish. It has some Indian sub-continent look. Is it spicy too?
You can add cayenne pepper if you want to make it spicy. I did put some… but it depends on taste!
I’m Brazilian and I leave outside of the country for a few years and since I always miss our food I have started to learning how cook them. Most of them take a lot of work, but moqueca is easy and worth every trouble =)
Funny thing is that I also talked about different foods in my last post and talked about feijoada in Brazil, have you tried that?! So delicious!
I want to try feijoada next time! I’m finding ways to travel without leaving my house… by eating!!
Looks awesome! Is this intended as a main sort of bread dish or a side dish like chapati?
It’s funny because I was also inclined to cut a baguette and serve it with the dish but your farofa will replace the bread.
No No, it’s a side dish. It’s served with almost every dish I ate in Brazil!
great!thanks your post!
I’m so hungry now, this looks more delicious than delicious! I can smell it off of my computer monitor lol
What do I have for lunch? A samwidge or tinned soup. BAH!!
Farofa is not that all common, like you said. But I guess it’s kinda well served in Bahia.
The best part of Moqueca, in my opinion, it’s the Pepper Sauce…
Nice taste, bud. (Y)
Farofa is common in Brazil. Did you mean in North America?
seems delicious… Hi, I’m a food lover, but unfortunately not a cook.
gotta learn to be a cook
Thanks for the recipe. I tried moqueca de camaro in Rio and thought it was great. I plan on going to Bahia in December.
Ah! You will love it! I want to come back next year.
Hi Bianca, you’re right but after talking to a few Brazilians in Montreal, they said that wheatlets is very similar to yuca flour and since it’s available in all grocery stores, that’s what I used for this recipe!!
Yes, that’s why I used wheatlets. I consulted the Brazilians in Montreal first!