Skip to main content
Main

Mozambique Fried Okra with Shrimp

A spicy dish of fried okra and shrimp in a tomato and piri‑piri sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 30 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Okra and shrimp work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 80 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven360°F

Ingredients

Contains: shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the okra

  1. Preheat oven to 360°F.

  2. Place the vegetable oil in a large 6‑8 quart stockpot.

  3. Fry the okra in half‑pound batches for 1½ to 2 minutes and drain on a paper‑lined sheet pan.

  4. Sprinkle the okra with salt and allow to cool while you continue to fry the remaining okra.

Sear the shrimp

  1. Once all the okra has been fried, heat a large sauté pan over medium‑high heat.

  2. Add the olive oil to the pan.

  3. Season the shrimp with the Essence and add half of the shrimp to the hot pan.

  4. Sear the shrimp for 3 minutes, turning halfway through the cook time.

  5. Transfer the shrimp to a platter and repeat with the remaining shrimp.

  6. Once all the shrimp are seared, remove them from the pan.

Make the sauce and simmer

  1. Add the onion to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted and translucent, 3 to 4 minutes.

  2. Add the garlic to the pan and cook for 30 seconds.

  3. Add the tomatoes, Piri Piri, 1 teaspoon of salt and the shrimp stock.

  4. Return the shrimp and okra to the pan and cover.

  5. Continue to cook the shrimp and okra until the shrimp are curled and pink, and the okra is soft and tender, about 5 minutes.

  6. Remove the cover from the pan and add the parsley and cilantro; stir to blend.

  7. Serve over hot steamed rice.

Prepare the Piri Piri Sauce

  1. Prepare Piri Piri Sauce.

  2. Heat a small sauté pan over medium‑high heat.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan.

  4. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and peppers to the pan.

  5. Sauté, stirring often, until the edges of the garlic start to turn brown, 3–4 minutes.

  6. Add the lemon juice to the pan and remove from heat.

  7. Place the contents of the sauté pan in a blender and add the salt.

  8. Puree the peppers and garlic in a blender until mostly smooth.

  9. Drizzle the remaining ½ cup of olive oil through the feed tube of the lid of the blender.

  10. Let the sauce cool before using, and store refrigerated in an airtight container; yield ¾ cup.

Make the Essence seasoning

  1. Prepare Emeril's ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast).

  2. Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight container.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Okra + shrimptop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Okra
Softens into a tender texture when simmered and thickens the dish.
Shrimp
Provides the main protein; searing browns the surface and it curls as it cooks.
Onions
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the base flavor of the sauce.
Garlic
Releases aroma when cooked briefly in oil, adding savory depth.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that help form the sauce.
Cayenne chili peppers
Supply heat and pungency to the Piri Piri sauce.

The step that matters

Sear the shrimp in batches. Crowding the pan drops its temperature so shrimp steam instead of browning. Searing in two batches keeps the pan hot for good color and flavor.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (okra, olive, shrimp, onion, garlic, tomato, pepper):

  1. Cuminabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Corianderabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, olive, shrimp, onion, garlic, tomato, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Illustration of Tomato SoupIllustrationTomato Soup526 recipesIllustration of Lemon SauceIllustrationLemon Sauce236 recipesIllustration of Cream of Tomato SoupIllustrationCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesIllustration of Tomato BisqueIllustrationTomato Bisque61 recipes