Camarâo com Queijo de Cabra – Shrimp with goat cheese

Hello from Porto / Olá do Porto,

One of the biggest chores we had to complete before we moved was getting rid of our stuff.  We’ll cover that in detail on another day, but for the most part we found that we had surprisingly little emotional attachment to most of the things we had accumulated over 45 years together. The hardest part for me was clearing out my home office and library. For Mary, the hardest thing was parting with her collection of cookbooks. 

They practically filled one kitchen cabinet and covered every cuisine from Southern barbecue to vegan to Middle Eastern. Some were barely touched, others well-worn from years of use. Fortunately for us, Mary found a good cook book app and was able to digitize dozens of her favorite recipes.

One of our last social engagements was a going-away party thrown for us by some dear friends in Columbus, Indiana.  We had asked them to refrain from giving us gifts and were pleasantly surprised that our friends had donated money to various charity groups in our names.  

Everyone obeyed the “no gift” rule except our friend Bob. Bob was an Army medic in Vietnam.  He is a retired accountant and owner of a barn full of old Pontiacs, some of which might even run someday.  We’ve known Bob and his wife Karen for nearly 20 years, and have noticed that Bob has never met a rule he didn’t want to break.

So Bob and Karen not only donated to a charity group, but he also insisted on giving us a  gift.  He purchased a “Authentic Portuguese Cooking” by Ana Patuleia Ortins for Mary to take to Portugal.  It was a perfect and thoughtful gift.  Mary was thrilled.

The book jacket describes Ana as a “first  generation descendant of Portuguese immigrants from the small town of Galveias  in the Alto Alentenjo region of Portugal”. Galveias is about a three hour drive south of Porto.  Ana now lives in Massachusetts and teaches Portuguese cooking.

We arrived in Porto on June 22 and by July 8, Mary was ready to try cooking Portuguese food in our tiny apartment kitchen.  The first recipe she selected was Camarâo com Queijo de Cabra or Shrimp with Goat Cheese.  Ana describes the dish as a “starter” which can be served with crusty Portuguese or artisan bread to sop up the sauce.  She says, 

This is a spin-off of my father’s peel-and-eat shrimp dish, where soft goat cheese gives just the right counterpoint to the spiciness of the sauce. The flavorful garlicky sauce envelopes the shrimp and goat cheese,  with the bell  peppers, balancing the acidity of the tomatoes. It teases the taste buds in the end with a spicy little kick.

Ana suggests doubling the recipe and serving it with rice if you are having guests.

Mary mistakenly used an entire onion, an entire tomato, and half of a huge bell pepper (they grow  them large here) to make the sauce. We were both happy for the mistake because it made extra gravy to soak up with our bread.

We also used larger camarôes, what we often refer to as langostinos, in the dish. We could have purchased smaller shrimp from the fish counter at the market, but we weren’t ready for that interaction. Our Portuguese is still very limited and every interaction requires a lot of energy and concentration. Sometimes we take the easy way out.

This is a really simple dish to create and comes together in no time, once the chopping is done.  It is filling and a delight for the senses. This could be a great starter for your next potluck dinner. (That’s a “pitch-in”, for my Hoosier friends.) Served with rice and a good bottle of wine, it could be a romantic dinner for two or something different to share with friends.

The Recipe

Camarâo com Queijo de Cabra or Shrimp with Goat Cheese

From “Authentic Portuguese Cooking”* by Ana Patuleia Ortins

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons / 30 ml olive oil
• 2 tablespoons / 28 g butter
• 1/4  cup / 40  g  chopped onion
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped into 1-inch / 2.5cm chunks
• 1 cup / 180 g chopped, seeded tomato
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon / 3 g paprika
• Generous shake or two of hot sauce
• 3/4 pound / 340 g (21/26 count) large shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt or to taste
• Pinch of ground white pepper
• 1/2 cup / 75 g goat cheese, chilled, then crumbled or cut into medium pieces
• 1  tablespoon / 4 g finely chopped cilantro or parsley

Directions

Heat the olive oil and butter in a medium skillet over medium heat, until hot but not smoking. Toss in the onion and sauté until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the chopped pepper, tomato, garlic, paprika and hot sauce. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir, recover and simmer until the sauce starts to come together and the tomatoes are married to the onion, about ten minutes. 

Add the shrimp, season with salt and ground pepper, stir and simmer for three minutes, just until the shrimp are no longer translucent, stir to curl, turn pink and are cooked through. If you are using larger shrimp, adjust time.

Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the goat cheese scattered over the top followed by the cilantro or parsley. Serve with crusty bread to dip in the sauce.

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Ana’s book has over 185 recipes. We’re looking forward to trying many more of them, and to sharing the results with you.

Until next time / Até à próxima,

Mary and Mike

The Cook and The Writer

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* All links to books are direct to Amazon.com. At the time of this writing (July, 2021), we receive no affiliate payment if you buy a copy. If that changes in the future, we’ll let you know.

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