Açorda de Gambas
Açorda is older than most people think, coming from Pre-Islamic Arabia. And perpetuated by the Arabic Andalusi in Iberia. It simply means "crumbed and soaked bread".
But açorda today is much more than that, the version from Alentejo is bright green and more a soup than a stew. Other versions have a poached egg, or no egg at all. The protein contents of this delicious recipe can also vary widely, from codfish to shellfish, or no meat at all.
This version, perhaps the simplest of them all, is based only on shrimp.
Ingredients
- 1 large onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 500 gr (preferably peeled) shrimp
- 2 cups fish broth (or shrimp broth)
- 8 slices of white bread with or without crust
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- 1 tbs coarse sea salt
- 2 1/2 tbs of olive oil
- 1 egg (optional)
Preparation
Start out by putting salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, cilantro and garlic in a mortar or food processor, and mash it into a paste.
In a small pot, set your shrimps to boil in two cups of water, and add the bay leaf. If your shrimps have shells on, you will have to peel them and add them back after they are cooked. This is the broth for the açorda so feel free to add salt and pepper as you see fit.
Heating the remaining olive oil in a medium sized pot, set the heat to medium, dice and add the large onion.
While you wait for the onion to brown slice or tear the bead into small pieces and add them to to the onion mixing them together for a few minutes. Before you turn off the heat add the cilantro olive and garlic paste and stir it in. The oil should be just hot enough to cook the garlic but not to burn it.
To serve, add the bread and cilantro to a deep plate and over it the egg.
Depending on your taste you can:
- Add the broth over the bread and mix it well, straining the bread to remove excess broth, then add the raw egg.
- Add the egg and then pour the broth with the shrimp over the result and wait for it to thicken.
This stew will feed 2 hungry stew lovers.