Apa de Camarão – Shrimp Cake

I wanted to share this recipe of Apa de Camarão before Thanksgiving as I thought it would be nice to jazz up the bread stuffing to make a lovely lightly sweet and spicy Shrimp Cake/Pie. This Goan Prawn Cake or Pie is not made too often and not found in restaurants but in the homes of those who were born during the Portuguese era.

Apa de Camarão (Prawn Bread) is traditionally made with overnight soaked rice that is ground with fresh grated coconut, coconut toddy( you can read more here) and nutmeg. Bolo de Camarão (Prawn Cake) is the same but made with lightly sweetened flour batter. Since both seemed as too much work, I decided to come up with a cheat version where the batter is less complicated and since Indian food does have a reputation to be complicated and time-consuming, this was a great way to maintain the authenticity of the recipe without compromising the texture and taste. So my recipe uses a bread base which is much faster.

It took me 3 days to figure out the type of bread that would work the best and the one I decided on was the English Toasting Bread that is dense and slight sour but not as sour as the sourdough bread. One thing I would like to mention is that it is a moist dense cake/pie. It is served at room temperature. It can be done a day or two ahead which is perfect if you are hosting an event. And can be refrigerated for a couple of days.

This recipe is a 2 part recipe one is the filling and the other is the batter.

Serving Size: 8-10  (9 ” Round Pan)

Shrimp Filling Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lbs of medium shrimps chopped in piece

1 large onion diced finely

1 tbsp of sugar

2 1/2 tbsp of recheado masala

2 cup freshly grated coconut

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 tsp nutmeg powder

Salt to taste

Directions:

Wash the shrimps, apply a little salt and keep aside. Roast the grated coconut on a non-stick pan till light golden brown.

Grind the roasted coconut with the coconut milk to a fine paste. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a pot on medium heat and add the diced onions and saute till light brown. Add the recheado masala and nutmeg powder and saute for 2 minutes. Next add the shrimps and saute for another 3 to 4 minutes.

Next add the ground coconut and sugar and salt to taste and cook till the liquid evaporates and the Shrimp filling is nice and dry about 10 minutes.

Take of heat and let cool.

Bread Batter Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 full loaf of sliced bread (16 slices) with trimmed edges and chopped small pieces.

2 cups of low-fat milk

3 whole eggs beaten

6 tbsp of sugar

1/2 tsp of nutmeg powder

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F.

In a mixing bowl whisk together eggs, sugar and nutmeg. Next add the milk and whisk. Add the mixture to the chopped bread and mix it well together with your clean hand to form a dough texture. Let the bread mix soak for about 10 minutes.

Grease a 9″ round pan. Divide the bread mixture in 2 equal portions. Pour one part of the bread mixture in the pan and level it with a spatula.

Next layer it with the shrimp mixture followed by the remaining bread batter. Bake for 45 minutes while checking that the top is not burnt. Let cool and then refrigerate it for a couple of hour so that you can slice it easily.

Serve as a side or make it as a meal on its own.