RECIPE - Shrimp Faustino (Camarão Faustino)

This recipe for shrimps and bananas in a light curry sauce created by José Faustino Paiva, proprietor of Fortaleza's Faustino restaurant (click here for a review of Faustino), highlights local ingredients, in keeping with Fautino's philosophy of sourcing ingredients as close to home as possible. It's a dish that can be made successfully just about anywhere, however, with near-universal availability of good shrimp and of bananas. In this recipe you should use sweet bananas, not plaintains. As the dish contains rice, it can be served simply with a light green salad as a lunch or dinner main course.
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RECIPE - Shrimp Faustino (Camarão Faustino)
Serves 2

1 Tbsp. butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 medium banana, just ripe, cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm.) cubes
1 tsp. good-quality curry powder
1 lb. (400 gr.) medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
salt and pepper to taste
1.5 oz cachaça (tequila can be substituted)
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup bechamel sauce (click here for bechamel recipe)
3 Tbsp. heavy cream
1 cup precooked, long grain white rice
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Heat a heavy-duty frying pan over medium heat. Melt the butter in the pan, then stir in the curry powder, mixing thoroughly to avoid lumps. Then add the garlic, the onion and the banana cubes. Cook until the onions are transparent, but not browned. Finally add the shrimps, plus salt and pepper to taste. Cook for a few minutes, until the shrimp are just done.Flame with the cachaça (put the liquor in a large serving spoon, heat briefly over medium heat, then touch match to the liquid, averting face. Once the cachaça is flaming, pour the mixture over the shrimps in the frying pan). Separately, mix together in a small saucepan the white wine, the bechamel and the cream and heat the mixture, but do not let it boil. On a serving platter, combine the shrimp mixture from the frying pan and half of the sauce, stirring to coat the shrimps and bananas with the sauce. Put the remainder of the sauce plus the cooked rice in the frying pan used to cook the shrimp and heat quickly over medium high heat. Place the rice in a side bowl, or alongside the shrimp on the platter and serve immediately.

Recipe adapted and translated from Cozinha Regional Brazileira by Abril Editora.