Week 9 - Brazilian

I was excited when the week 9 challenge came up as Brazilian, because B had never had Brazilian food before! I wasn't sure what to make since one of my favorite Brazilian foods, pao de queijo, has eggs as a pretty central ingredient, but I was sure we could find something we would all love. I looked around for something that wouldn't be too meat-heavy, and came upon a recipe for a Bahia-style moqueca prawn stew on BBC Good Food. We'd been meaning to introduce B to shrimp for some time, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. It sounded delicious and simple to make, so it was an easy choice.

Previous Brazilian challenge meal from 2016

A few days after I made our recipe choice for the challenge, I looked back at what we did for the last Brazilian challenge. I remembered that it had involved fish and a soup or stew of some sort, and that we had not really been fans of how the fish turned out. As I read over the post, it occurred to me that the ingredients and the steps sounded very similar to the moqueca that we were going to make this time. Well, it sounded similar because it was. It was almost the same thing but with fish instead of shrimp (and some other ingredient variations like cumin and the amount of lime juice), but I didn't realize it when picking this one because the recipe last time had just been called Brazilian fish stew and not moqueca. I decided to make it anyway, since this time it would have shrimp, and it would also be a chance to do it better.

The ingredients for our adapted version were:

- 1 package of frozen raw shrimp (about 450g) ($9.99)
- juice of 2 limes, divided ($0.58)
- 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped ($0.33)
- a few tbsp coconut oil ($0.50)
- 1 onion, chopped ($0.50)
- 4 scallions, chopped, whites and greens separated ($0.65)
- 2 bell peppers, chopped ($2.67)
- a couple tsp paprika ($0.10)
- 1 can diced tomatoes with juice ($0.89)
- 1 can (about 400 ml) coconut milk ($1.50)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper ($0.05)
- rice ($2)

[Note: The original recipe also included a couple tbsp of chopped cilantro, but the grocery store was out of cilantro and we were a little too busy to go hunting for it. It would have been a nice addition to brighten it up even more.]

The total came out to approximately $19.76, more than recent challenge meals, but that's to be expected when almost $10 of that cost is the shrimp by itself. It was enough for the three of us for dinner, plus a little left over for lunch for me and B (chicken nuggets went really well with it).


The steps for our version were:

1. Marinate shrimp: Place in a bowl with about 2 tbsp of lime juice and 1 tbsp of chopped garlic. Chill for about an hour.

2. Heat coconut oil. Add onion and the whites of the scallions, and saute until soft. Add peppers, scallion greens, the rest of the garlic, and the paprika, and cook until the peppers begin to soften. Season with some freshly ground black pepper.


3. Add the can of tomatoes with juice, coconut milk, and a little salt. Bring to boil, and then simmer on low for 10 minutes. [Note: I added another 1/2 cup of water along with the coconut milk because it didn't look like enough liquid for the shrimp. It didn't need it. It was more than enough so it ended up being more like soup than stew, but it was some delicious broth!]

4. Add shrimp with the marinade and the rest of the lime juice, and cook for about 3 minutes (or enough time for shrimp to turn white and opaque).

5. Garnish with chopped cilantro (if you have it, unlike us) and serve over rice.


We really liked this recipe, much more than when we made it last time. Cilantro would have made it even better, but it was vibrant, bright, and full of tropical flavors, especially lime, transporting our minds and tastebuds to someplace warmer in the middle of winter. (We made this back in February.) The prep took a little bit of time, but it was a pretty straightforward recipe and easy to make. All three of us liked it a lot, and it seemed like B's first time having shrimp was a success! Would definitely make this again.