Latin America & Caribbean

Bobó de Camarão: Bahian Shrimp in Cassava Cream

Name: Bobó de Camarão: Bahian Shrimp in Cassava Cream
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Brazilian (Bahian)
Ingredients: 500 g Raw shell-on shrimp; 600 g Cassava (manioc); 200 ml Unsweetened coconut milk; 30 ml Dendê oil (edible red palm oil); 15 ml Rice bran oil or vegetable oil; 150 g Onion; 100 g Red bell pepper; 200 g Tomato; 10 g Garlic; 15 ml Lime juice; 15 g Cilantro; 8 g Salt; 1 g Black pepper; 700 ml Water; 2 cups (rice-cooker measure) White rice; 80 g Farofa; 1 Lime

A 4-serving home recipe for Bahia's bobó de camarão: turning cassava into a smooth sauce, how much dendê oil and coconut milk, cooking the shrimp, substitutes, storage, and the food culture behind this Brazilian dish.

Published: October 25, 2026Total: 1 hr 10 minLevel: Intermediate

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 6

Make stock from the shrimp shells

15 min

Making stock by simmering shrimp shells and aromatics in a pot — Frying the shells before adding water moves the shrimp aroma into the stock even in a short time

Peel the shrimp, remove the veins, and return them to the refrigerator. If you have shells and heads, put 5 ml of rice bran oil in a pot and fry them over medium heat for 3 minutes, moving them until they turn red and fragrant. Pour in 700 ml of water, bring to a boil, simmer over medium-low for 10 minutes, and strain through a strainer.

Without shells, use 600 ml of unsalted seafood or vegetable stock. If using salted granulated stock, start the final salt at 4 g. Measure the stock after straining rather than keeping it hot, which makes it easier to adjust for how firm the cassava is.

STEP 22 / 6

Boil the cassava until soft

25–35 min

Cassava boiled in shrimp stock, with the softness checked with a fork — Boil the cassava until a fork slides in easily and the hard central fiber can be removed

Peel the cassava thickly and cut into 3 cm wide pieces. If hard fibers show in the thick center, don't force a fine trimming; leave it to be removed after cooking. Put 450 ml of shrimp stock in a pot, add the cassava, and heat over medium.

Boil until a fork goes in without resistance and the pieces crumble slightly when lifted. The time varies with the variety and with frozen product, so after 25 minutes check every 5 minutes. While warm, remove the hard fiber at the center, and save the cooking liquid.

STEP 33 / 6

Make the cassava into a cream

8 min

Boiled cassava blended smooth with coconut milk and stock — Keep the thickness of the sauce from the cassava, at a density that falls slowly from the spoon

Put 600 g of boiled cassava, 200 ml of coconut milk, and 150 ml of shrimp stock in a food processor or blender. Run it in short bursts at first, and once smooth, blend continuously for only 30 seconds. Running a hot mixture in a sealed container is dangerous, so for models with a feed opening follow the manual and let the steam escape.

No heat is used. With the stove turned off, run the food processor, and if the cassava is too hot, let it stand 5 minutes before blending.

The goal is a thickness where a spoonful holds a mound and, dropped into the pot, spreads slowly. If it is stiff, add the reserved stock 15 ml at a time. Adding a lot of water at once here lengthens the later reducing and weakens the coconut aroma.

Combining the aromatics and shrimp

STEP 44 / 6

Fry the onion, bell pepper, and tomato

12 min

Onion, red bell pepper, and tomato fried in dendê oil — Fry the aromatics unhurriedly and drive off the tomato's moisture to build the core of the sauce

Put 10 ml of rice bran oil and 15 ml of dendê oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Fry the onion 4 minutes, and when translucent add the red bell pepper for 3 minutes. Fry the garlic for 30 seconds, then add the tomato, 4 g of salt, and black pepper.

Reduce 5 to 6 minutes, until the tomato breaks down and the track of the wooden spoon stays for about 2 seconds. If you move on while still watery, the flavor blurs when the cassava cream goes in. The next signal is when a little oil returns to the surface and a thin film forms on the bottom of the pot.

STEP 55 / 6

Cook the shrimp briefly

4 min

Shrimp cooked in the pot of tomato and aromatics — Add the shrimp just before finishing the sauce, and do not overcook once the flesh is white and opaque

Coat the shrimp with 15 ml of lime juice and 2 g of salt and use within 10 minutes. Put them in the pot of aromatics and cook over medium to medium-high heat, 1 1/2 minutes on one side and about 1 minute after turning. When the flesh curls and turns white and opaque throughout, lower the heat for the moment.

The shrimp keeps cooking from residual heat afterward. While translucent parts remain it is not safe to eat, but if you simmer it long just because it turned red, it hardens in the sauce. The US FoodSafety.gov also advises cooking seafood until the flesh is white and opaque.

STEP 66 / 6

Add the cassava cream and finish

6 min

Cassava cream and coconut milk added to the pot of shrimp and mixed — Do not boil the sauce hard; turn off the heat at a thickness where the track of the wooden spoon stays for a moment

For serving, the guide per person is about 250 g of bobó, about 150 g of white rice, and about 20 g of farofa. Pour the bobó onto one side of a dish 2 to 3 cm deep and put the rice and farofa next to it, so the sauce does not spread too far.

Lower the heat and add the cassava cream and the remaining 50–100 ml of shrimp stock. Mix widely from the bottom and warm 3 to 4 minutes at a level where small bubbles barely appear. A thickness where tracing the pot bottom with a wooden spoon leaves a line for a moment is the thickness for plating.

Turn off the heat and add the remaining 15 ml of dendê oil and the chopped cilantro. Taste for salt and add the remaining 2 g if needed. The aroma is easier to notice if dendê oil is stirred in at the end than if added to a rolling boil. Serve with white rice and farofa, with lime on a separate plate so each person can squeeze it.

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Ingredients

1 / 2

The bobó itself

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes and notes
Raw shell-on shrimp	500 g	400 g if peeled only. Without shells, use unsalted seafood stock
Cassava (manioc)	600 g	Frozen cassava also works. Remove the hard fibers in the center
Unsweetened coconut milk	200 ml	Coconut cream is too rich; if using it, thin with an equal amount of water
Dendê oil (edible red palm oil)	30 ml	For the first time, split into 15 ml for frying and 15 ml for finishing
Rice bran oil or vegetable oil	15 ml	For frying the aromatics. Olive oil also works
Onion	150 g	1 medium. Finely chopped
Red bell pepper	100 g	1/2. Or 2 regular green peppers
Tomato	200 g	2 medium. Or 150 g canned diced tomatoes
Garlic	10 g	2 cloves. Finely chopped
Lime juice	15 ml	Lemon juice also works. For seasoning the shrimp
Cilantro	15 g	Brings in the Bahian aroma. Flat-leaf parsley if you dislike it
Salt	8 g	Divided between the shrimp and the sauce overall
Black pepper	1 g	About 1/2 tsp
Water	700 ml	For stock from the shrimp shells. 600 ml unsalted stock if using peeled shrimp

2 / 2

To serve alongside

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes and notes
White rice	2 cups (rice-cooker measure)	The staple that catches the bobó. Freshly cooked or cold rice both work
Farofa	80 g	A Brazilian side of toasted cassava flour. If none, dry-toast fine breadcrumbs
Lime	1	Served on the side. For those who want more sourness

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Bobó de camarão begins with an orange sauce

When you lift the lid of the pot, what you notice first is the color of the sauce, before the shrimp. An orange with a tinge of yellow. Put in a spoon, and it does not flow freely; it opens a path slowly and closes back. Red, curled shrimp come in and out of view in it.

Bobó de camarão is a shrimp dish loved in Bahia, in northeastern Brazil. The camarão in the name is Portuguese for shrimp. The base of the flavor is boiled and mashed cassava, coconut milk, and dendê oil, with its distinctive aroma and color.

Making it for the first time elsewhere, you stop at two points. "How much dendê oil makes it taste local?" and "How smooth should the cassava sauce be?" Decide these on impulse and either the oil comes forward alone or it turns into heavy mashed potatoes.

This article is set into a 4-serving home recipe. The frame of the flavor is the thickness of cassava, the roundness of coconut, the aroma of dendê oil, and finally the sweetness of the shrimp. Keep this order and even if you replace some ingredients, "what you are eating" does not blur.

The name and how to read it

In Portuguese it is written bobó de camarão. Introductions to Brazilian food culture explain that the origin of bobó is the Fon language of West Africa, but there are several views in the history of the dish. Rather than rushing to a conclusion, it is better to enjoy it as a dish that grew in Bahia.

The axis of flavor to decide first

Bobó de camarão, white rice, and farofa in a dish evoking a Bahian table — Bobó de camarão shows its outline when eaten with rice and farofa, with the sauce at the center

For the first plate, the mix uses 2 tbsp of dendê oil, that is, 30 ml. But you don't need to put in all 30 ml at the start. Fry 15 ml with the aromatics and add the remaining 15 ml after turning off the heat, and it is easier to keep the color and aroma.

The "local character" of this dish is not strong heat. The Instituto Brasil a Gosto's explanation of the dish (here) also presents it as the Bahian flavor in which dendê oil, coconut milk, chili, and shrimp overlap. The bobó sauce is less a dish pushing with sharpness than one where cassava holds the aroma of oil and the thickness of coconut.

Tasting in the following order makes it hard to lose your way.

Is there the sweet, earthy quality of cassava?
Is there the roundness of coconut milk?
Does the dendê oil scent come from behind?
Does the sweetness of the shrimp remain at the end?

Holding back the dendê oil makes it easier to eat, but it moves toward a different dish. If you are unsure whether to buy a bottle from the first time, read the note below on red palm oil. It gives both the reason to buy and the reason to skip it this time.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Cassava, shell-on shrimp, coconut milk, dendê oil, and aromatics laid out for bobó de camarão — Cassava and dendê oil are the base of the flavor. The shrimp is cooked last, so measure all the ingredients first

When handling shrimp and cassava

Do not eat shrimp raw; cook until the center of the flesh is white and opaque. Use separate knives and cutting boards for raw shrimp and vegetables, or wash them with detergent before use. If you have an allergy to shrimp, coconut, or palm oil, check the ingredient labels and do not force substitutes. Peel cassava and always boil it before use.

Steps

Preparation and making the sauce

How to tell when it is ready to plate

The sauce on the plate should not set like a mound but spread slowly beside the rice. If it all runs off the tilted spoon at once, there is a lot of stock. If instead a lump does not move, mix in the reserved stock 15 ml at a time.

The shrimp is best when the center is white, the surface red-orange, and the tail tip not fully shriveled. When the green of cilantro, the orange of dendê oil, white rice, and pale farofa sit side by side, a dish that was one color in the pot gets the rhythm of a table.

Tips for getting it right

Checking the density of the bobó de camarão sauce falling slowly from a spoon — Aim for a density where the sauce thinly coats the back of the spoon and the track along the pot bottom stays briefly

Cassava fibers decide the texture

If the hard fiber in the center is left, a stringy texture appears even after blending. When you split the cassava after boiling, if a white hard streak runs through the center, remove it. Frozen cassava breaks easily, so check with your fingers before it crumbles completely.

Save half the dendê oil for last

If you are not used to strongly scented oil, you can reduce it to 10 ml for frying and 5 ml for finishing. If it seems too little, add a few drops at a time from above on the plate. Because it is hard to take out oil that has gone in, it is safer not to pour the whole amount into the pot at the start.

Watery or heavy can be fixed

If watery, remove the lid and simmer over low heat for only 2 to 3 minutes. If too heavy, add hot shrimp stock 15 ml at a time. Avoid adding cold water, which lowers the temperature and gives the shrimp extra cooking.

The last line for keeping shrimp from toughening

Do not boil hard once the shrimp is in. When the center is white and opaque, lower to low heat at the stage of adding the cassava cream. If the shrimp finishes first, you can also lift it out once with a skimmer, adjust the sauce, and return it for the last 30 to 60 seconds.

What can change in a home kitchen, and what should not

Variations: bobó-style plates using shrimp, white fish, and mushrooms — Substitution is possible, but keep the axis of cassava thickness and the ingredient added at the end

Going easy on the dendê oil

The first time you can make the dendê oil a total of 15 ml, 10 ml for frying and 5 ml for finishing. The color gets paler and the aroma milder. This cannot be called "the same as the original," but it is a realistic choice to start from an amount you can finish.

Using shell-free shrimp

With 400 g of peeled shrimp, you cannot make shell stock. Use 600 ml of unsalted seafood stock, divided between boiling the cassava and thinning the sauce. The depth of flavor is lighter than with shell-on, but the shrimp prep is shorter.

A white fish bobó-style

Instead of raw shrimp, cut 400 g of boneless white fish into 3 cm cubes. Add it to the aromatics, cook 2 minutes per side, and add the cream when the flesh is white and flaking. Since there is no shrimp, think of it not as bobó de camarão but as a bobó-style seafood stew.

With mushrooms and hearts of palm

Switch the shrimp stock to vegetable stock and add 150 g of shimeji and 100 g of hearts of palm, and you can make it with plant ingredients. The aroma of coconut milk and dendê oil stays, but it is not a re-creation of the shrimp dish. Rinse jarred hearts of palm, which are salted, before use.

Adding a little dried shrimp

For a deeper Bahian flavor, fry 10 g of rehydrated dried shrimp with the aromatics. The shrimp flavor gets stronger, so reduce the salt for the raw shrimp and the overall salt by 2 g each and taste. Not suitable for those with shellfish allergy.

Changing the rice and farofa

The white rice can be cooked with a little coconut milk added. Farofa can be replaced with dry-toasted fine breadcrumbs if you have no cassava flour. The light grit of farofa is an escape for the rich sauce; you can leave it out altogether, but adding it changes the impression of the plate.

Bobó de camarão seen from the Bahian table

Cassava, coconut, dendê oil, dried shrimp, and chili laid out in wooden bowls as ingredients of Bahian cooking — The combination of cassava, coconut, dendê oil, and shrimp that shapes Bahian cooking

The food culture of Bahia cannot be explained by a single origin. Brazil's National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) presents Bahia's intangible culture as an overlap of African, Indigenous, and European cultures. Cooking is the same: the road ingredients came by and how they were used on the land overlap.

Cassava is native to South America and is an ingredient that supports the Brazilian table. Dendê oil came from the food culture of West Africa and adds color and aroma to Bahian dishes. Coconut milk, chili, and dried shrimp overlap too, becoming the flavor now presented as Afro-Bahian cuisine.

There is an explanation that names ipetê, yam simmered with dendê oil and dried shrimp, as an ancestor of bobó. Even so, in culinary research and introductory articles, its relation to bobó is treated not as one fixed lineage but as a possibility of several influences and changes. It is better to read this as one theory, without deciding "this is the only origin."

Bahian dishes also change form among homes, ritual occasions, and restaurants. The Bahia state government's introduction to its food culture explains the difference in context so that the food of Candomblé is not equated with general Bahian cooking. When making bobó, one wants to enjoy the background while avoiding language that treats a dish of faith lightly as a commodity.

Regional differences and re-creating it elsewhere

Even within Brazil there are versions that replace cassava with yam, versions that add dried shrimp, and versions that reduce the coconut milk. UOL's introduction to the dish also presents it as a dish whose ingredients and presentation change by region and household.

When re-creating it elsewhere, adjusting in the order of using frozen cassava, combining shell-free shrimp with unsalted stock, and trying dendê oil from 15 ml lets you see what you changed. What is better not to change is making the cassava smooth and cooking the shrimp briefly at the end.

At the table, bobó is eaten with white rice and farofa. Scoop the sauce and coat the rice, mix in a little farofa. After eating the shrimp, chase the sauce alone once more. This is a dish that comes together on the plate with the staple rather than being tasted ingredient by ingredient.

About red palm oil

Edible red palm oil, cassava, shrimp, and a food processor laid out as considerations for shopping — The reasons to buy are dendê oil and a kitchen appliance that can make the cassava smooth

Edible red palm oil is for buying the axis of flavor

The reason to buy dendê oil is if you want to confirm the Bahian aroma and orange color once. One bottle can also be used for finishing other dishes, such as acarajé and moqueca. Conversely, if you dislike the aroma of the oil, have no plans to use it in other dishes, or want to try a light taste the first time, it is fine to skip it this time. Bringing only the color closer with 15 ml of rice bran oil and a little paprika is possible, but the aroma is another thing.

Check that the product is labeled edible red palm oil, usually sold in about 500 g sizes. Cosmetic or non-food palm oil cannot be substituted.

A food processor is for those who want the cassava fiber smooth

If you already have a blender and can make a small amount of sauce, you don't need to buy one. It can also be made by chopping finely with a knife and pushing through a sieve. The conditions for buying are wanting an even cassava cream, wanting to use it for prepping aromatics too, and having storage space. Check not only the capacity but whether it can handle hot ingredients and the handling conditions for the feed opening and bowl. Because it is not always safe to run hot cassava in a sealed container, always follow the product manual when using it.

Storage and frequently asked questions

Bobó de camarão divided into storage containers, with white rice in a separate container — Storing the sauce and rice separately makes it easier to adjust the texture when reheating

How should I refrigerate it?

Once the heat has dissipated, move it to a shallow container and refrigerate the sauce and rice separately. It depends on your refrigerator at home, but because it contains shrimp, finish it within 2 days. When reheating, stir over low heat and heat to the center. Repeated reheating toughens the shrimp, so it is easier to portion out only what you will eat.

Can I freeze it?

You can, but the cassava and coconut milk may separate and the texture of the shrimp changes. If freezing, it is easier to recover if you take the shrimp out a little early and portion only the sauce. After thawing, return the shrimp and warm over low heat to the center. Freeze rice separately.

Can I use frozen cassava?

Yes. Because the boiling time varies by product, check with a fork in addition to the labeled time. If fibers remain in the center, remove them while warm. For a watery frozen product, reduce the stock added to the cream by 50 ml from the start.

What can replace dendê oil?

There is a method of adding a little paprika to rice bran or vegetable oil. But that is a substitute for color, not for the aroma of dendê oil. If you want to confirm the axis of flavor, buying a small amount of edible red palm oil and, if the aroma does not suit you, using less next time makes it easier to see what you changed.

Can I fix shrimp that turned tough?

It will not return fully. Next time, reduce the aromatics first and cook the shrimp only briefly right before combining with the sauce. If translucent parts still remain in this pot, take them out, adjust the sauce, and return them for 30 to 60 seconds at the end until the center is white and opaque.

What should I cook with it?

To continue with the same Bahian aroma, candidates are the bean-based acarajé (in Japanese) and the seafood and coconut moqueca baiana. On a day you want to see the Brazilian table from the big pot of beans and meat, going on to the black bean stew feijoada shows how the role of farofa changes even with the same farofa. On a day you want the bobó sauce at the center, limiting the sides to white rice and farofa keeps the flavor from scattering.

Summary: for those with a reason to buy dendê oil

A finished table of bobó de camarão with white rice and farofa — A Bahian table where white rice and farofa catch the thickness of cassava and the sweetness of shrimp

When making bobó de camarão at home, the order to keep is simple.

Remove the fiber in the center of the cassava and make it smooth with stock and coconut milk
Fry the aromatics until the moisture of the tomato is gone
Add the shrimp last and do not overcook once the flesh is white and opaque
Divide the dendê oil into frying and finishing amounts and adjust the aroma to your liking

Whether to buy red palm oil can be decided by whether you want to use the Bahian aroma again. Skipping it this time, trying it with rice bran oil, and learning only the cassava thickness and the shrimp heat first is also a proper choice.

Conversely, if you want to catch even the aroma of dendê oil at the moment you scoop the orange sauce, it is worth buying a small amount. Rather than finishing it all at once in the pot, add the aroma last and stop at "this much" on your own plate. That is the most thoughtful adjustment for keeping this dish going in a home kitchen.

Sources

These are the materials used to check the dish's history, regional character, and cooking steps. Accessed 17 July 2026.