| The Food of Spain and Portugal | Kyle Books, 2005 | Serves 4
Lisbon’s açorda, or bread soup, is made with fresh seafood—usually prawns (large shrimp)—and tends to have a risotto-like texture. Although city folk prefer the elegance of white bread, cornbread makes a particularly good seafood açorda. The sweetness of the crumbled cornbread works well with crustaceans.—Elisabeth Luard
Active time: 30 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Portuguese Bread Soup with Shrimp Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound (about 1/2 loaf) dried-out broa (Portuguese cornbread) or any sturdy rustic loaf of bread
- 2 large onions or leeks
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 4 pounds ripe tomatoes
- 1 whole head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 pound raw jumbo shrimp, shelled or not, depending on what you please
- 4 ounces chouriço or chorizo, roughly sliced (optional)
- 1 tablespoon anchovy paste or 2 to 3 canned anchovy fillets, crushed (optional)
- A small pat of butter (optional)
- Plenty of chopped fresh cilantro
Directions
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1. Tear the bread into bite-sized pieces. Let it soak in a bowl with enough salted water to cover for a couple of hours, then use your hands to squeeze it dry.
2. While the bread soaks, thinly slice the onions or leeks and heat them gently in a large skillet over medium heat with 1/3 cup of the olive oil until soft and golden, 30 minutes or longer.
3. Chop the tomatoes and let them cook down in a roomy pot with the rest of the olive oil and the garlic until half their volume.
4. Crush the peppercorns and coriander seeds in a mortar and add them to the tomatoes along with the oregano. When the tomatoes have cooked down, push them through a strainer, return them to the pan, and stir in the soaked, squeezed-out bread and 4 cups of cold water. Let it bubble up and cook gently for another 20 minutes, then stir in the contents of the skillet along with the jumbo shrimp, the sliced chouriço, if using, and an optional dash of anchovies to draw out the fishy flavor.
5. Cook the soup for another 20 minutes, until the bread is perfectly amalgamated with the broth. Stir in a pat of butter and finish with a liberal scattering of fresh chopped cilantro.
- Portuguese-Style Turkey Soup with Linguica, Potatoes and Kale from One Perfect Bite
- Portuguese Chouriço, Kale and Potato Soup from Taste As You Go
- Portuguese White Gazpacho with Crab from Leite’s Culinaria
- Portuguese Kale Soup from Leite’s Culinaria
Portuguese bread soup with shrimp recipe © 2005 Elisabeth Luard. Photo © 2005 Jean Cazals. All rights reserved.
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