Cook and Scale

Camarão na Moranga

4 servings · 105 min total

A whole pumpkin roasted until the flesh gives to a spoon, then filled with prawns in a creamy coconut and cream-cheese sauce and carried to the table in its own shell.

Ingredients

2½ kg pumpkin, one whole squash with the stalk intact
600 g shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp salt
½ tsp white pepper
30 g butter, softened
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 dl coconut milk
1½ dl heavy cream
200 g cream cheese, at room temperature
3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Contains: Milk, Crustaceans

Allergen info is best-effort — please verify yourself.

Method

1.
Hollow out the pumpkin — Heat the oven to 190°C. Cut a wide lid from the top of the pumpkin at a slight inward angle so it will sit back in place, scrape out every seed and fibre, and rub the whole cavity with the softened butter and half a teaspoon of the salt.
2.
Roast the shell until tender — Sit the pumpkin and its lid in a deep roasting tin, cover loosely with foil and bake for about an hour. It is ready when a knife slides into the flesh with no resistance but the shell still stands up on its own.
3.
Marinate the prawns in lime — While the pumpkin roasts, toss the shrimp with the lime juice, half a teaspoon of the salt and the white pepper and keep them in the fridge. Do not leave them in the acid much longer than the roasting time or the flesh turns chalky.
4.
Build the tomato base — Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat and cook the onion until soft and translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste and fry for 2 minutes more, until the paste darkens to brick red and smells sweet rather than raw.
5.
Make the creamy filling — Pour in the coconut milk and heavy cream, bring to a bare simmer and let it reduce for 5 minutes. Whisk in the cream cheese a spoonful at a time until the sauce is glossy and smooth, then slide in the shrimp and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, only until they turn pink and curl.
6.
Fill the shell and bake — Scrape three or four spoonfuls of the soft roasted flesh from inside the pumpkin and stir them into the sauce to thicken it. Spoon the filling into the shell, put the lid back on and return it to the oven for 10 minutes, then scatter with cilantro and serve straight from the shell.