Caruru

Name: Caruru
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Brazil
Ingredients: 600 g okra, stems trimmed, roughly chopped or thinly sliced; 300 g fresh medium shrimp (prawns), peeled and deveined; 100 g dried shrimp (camarão seco), soaked in water 30 min, drained; 100 g raw peanuts, toasted and roughly ground; 80 g raw cashews, toasted and roughly ground; 60 ml dendê oil (red palm oil, not to be substituted); 2 medium onions, finely diced; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 2 malagueta peppers or small hot chillies, minced (to taste); 300 ml water; 1 tsp salt (to taste, dried shrimp is salty); 1 small bunch fresh coriander or parsley, chopped, to serve

Bahia's sacred okra stew: pods cooked with dried shrimp, fresh shrimp, toasted peanuts, cashews, and dendê oil: Candomblé's offering to the orixás, born from the African diaspora's memory of home

Origin: Brazil

From the journey of Okra.

Caruru is one of the great sacred foods of Afro-Brazilian culture: a thick, intensely flavoured stew of okra cooked with dried shrimp, fresh shrimp, toasted peanuts, toasted cashews, and dendê (red palm oil), offered to the orixás (Yoruba deities) in Candomblé ceremonies and served at the public feast of the twin saints Cosme e Damião (Ibeji in Candomblé). The dish was brought to Bahia by enslaved Yoruba and Ewe-Fon peoples from West Africa, who recognised in Brazilian okra the same vegetable they had cooked at home and recreated their traditional preparations with the available ingredients of the New World. Caruru is the clearest direct line between West African okra cooking and the Brazilian kitchen: its flavour profile; dendê oil, dried shrimp, okra's viscous draw; is unmistakably West African. It is also one of the most complex and flavour-dense preparations in Brazilian cuisine: the toasted peanuts and cashews add nuttiness and body; the dried shrimp provides an intense umami depth; the dendê oil gives its vivid orange colour and distinctive fruity bitterness.

Ingredients

Vegetable

600 g okra, stems trimmed, roughly chopped or thinly sliced

Protein

300 g fresh medium shrimp (prawns), peeled and deveined
100 g dried shrimp (camarão seco), soaked in water 30 min, drained

Nuts

100 g raw peanuts, toasted and roughly ground
80 g raw cashews, toasted and roughly ground

Fat

60 ml dendê oil (red palm oil, not to be substituted)

Base

2 medium onions, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced

Heat

2 malagueta peppers or small hot chillies, minced (to taste)

Liquid

300 ml water

Seasoning

1 tsp salt (to taste, dried shrimp is salty)

Garnish

1 small bunch fresh coriander or parsley, chopped, to serve

Method

Toast the peanuts and cashews separately in a dry pan until golden and fragrant. Allow to cool, then grind roughly in a mortar or food processor; they should be coarse, not a paste.
Blend the dried shrimp to a rough powder in a food processor or grind in a mortar. The dried shrimp is the primary seasoning agent; it provides the intense savoury umami base of the dish.
Heat the dendê oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 8 minutes until soft and golden. Add the garlic and malagueta pepper. Cook 2 minutes.
Add the dried shrimp powder and stir for 1 minute. Add the okra and water. Stir well. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the okra is tender and has thickened the liquid into a viscous sauce.
Add the ground nuts. Stir thoroughly. The mixture will thicken significantly. Add the fresh shrimp. Cook for 3–4 minutes until the shrimp are just cooked through.
Taste and adjust salt and chilli. The caruru should be thick, intensely flavoured, vivid orange-red, and deeply savoury. Serve with white rice, acarajé (black-eyed pea fritters), or as part of a Bahian feast.

Notes

Caruru is classified as comida de santo, 'food of the saints', in Afro-Brazilian Candomblé tradition. It is the specific offering for the orixá Xangô and the twin spirits Ibeji, and its preparation is considered a sacred act. The recipe and its ritual context were carried intact from Yoruba and Ewe-Fon West Africa to Brazil, making caruru one of the most culturally complete expressions of the African diaspora in the Americas. Dendê (red palm oil) is the fat of the Yoruba kitchen and is non-negotiable in caruru: its colour, flavour, and cultural significance are inseparable from the dish. Bahia is the Brazilian state with the highest proportion of African-descended population and the most intact Afro-Brazilian culinary tradition.

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control