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Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers)
Half-moon turnovers of soft cooked dough filled with prawns in a creamy lemon and parsley sauce, crumbed and fried golden, a fixture of Mozambican petisco menus.
Mozambican · medium · serves 6
prep 50 min · cook 40 min · plus 30 min hands-off time
~466 cal · 29g protein · 59g carbs · 12g fat · 3g fiber · 5g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Rissóis are half-moon pastries of Portuguese origin, and in Mozambique they are everywhere: on the petisco menus of cafés and bars, where they are fried to order, and on the table at birthdays and gatherings of friends, where they open the meal. The Mozambican favourite is rissóis de camarão, filled with the prawns for which the country's coast is famous.
The dough is unusual: flour is tipped all at once into boiling water flavoured with butter and a strip of lemon peel and beaten over the heat until it comes together, then cooled, rolled thin and cut into rounds. The filling is a thick, creamy sauce of prawns, onion and parsley, bound with egg yolk and sharpened with lemon. Each rissol is folded, dipped in egg, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried until crisp.
Served hot, they are crisp outside and soft within, and some cooks add a touch of piri-piri to the filling.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 2 cups (480 ml) water, for the dough
- 3 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp for the dough, 2 tbsp for the filling
- 1 strip of lemon peel
- 1 tsp salt, plus more for the filling
- 2 cups plus 2 tbsp (about 265 g) plain flour, 2 cups for the dough, 2 tbsp for the filling
- 400 g (about 200 g peeled) raw prawns (shrimp), in the shell
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 250 ml (1 cup) milk, or half milk, half strained prawn cooking water
- 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- to taste black pepper
- 1 piri-piri, finely chopped (optional)
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 eggs, beaten, for coating
- 1 1/2 cups fine dry breadcrumbs
- about 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying
Instructions
- 1Make the dough: bring the water to the boil with 1 tbsp butter, the lemon peel and the salt. Take out the peel, take the pan off the heat and tip in the flour all at once. Beat hard, then return to low heat and keep stirring for 2 to 3 minutes, until the dough comes away from the pan in a ball. Turn it out, cover and leave to cool for 30 minutes.
- 2Meanwhile boil the prawns for 2 to 3 minutes, until pink. Drain, keeping the cooking water, then peel and chop them.
- 3Melt the remaining butter and cook the onion for 5 minutes until soft. Stir in the 2 tbsp flour for a minute, then pour in the milk and cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes into a very thick sauce. Add the prawns, parsley, lemon juice, pepper, piri-piri and salt, take off the heat and beat in the egg yolks. Leave to cool.
- 4Knead the cooled dough briefly, roll it out thinly on a floured surface and cut out rounds about 9 cm across. Put a teaspoon of filling on each, fold into half moons and press the edges firmly to seal.✎ Chef’s noteCold filling and well-sealed edges stop the rissóis bursting in the oil.
- 5Dip each rissol in the beaten egg, then roll it in breadcrumbs.
- 6Heat the oil to 175°C (350°F) and fry the rissóis a few at a time for 3 to 4 minutes, until deep golden. Drain on paper and serve hot.
Mozambican café and home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Maputo. Mozambique's capital cooks peri-peri prawns, coconut-rich curries, and Portuguese-influenced seafood. The Indian Ocean and a colonial past flavor Maputo's lively table.
🗺️
Mozambique. For much of the twentieth century Mozambique was the world's leading producer of cashews, responsible at its height for around half of global output, and Africa's first industrial cashew processing plant opened here in 1960. War, nationalisation and structural adjustment collapsed the industry, and the country now grows a small fraction of the world's crop, though the nut still turns up in the cooking.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mozambique
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Frango Piri-PiriButterflied chicken grilled under a lemon-garlic piri-piri baste, the original of a dish the world now queues for.
BadjiasCrisp Mozambican chickpea-flour fritters flecked with onion and served with fiery piri-piri.
Browse all Mozambique recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Mozambique meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers)?
Half-moon turnovers of soft cooked dough filled with prawns in a creamy lemon and parsley sauce, crumbed and fried golden, a fixture of Mozambican petisco menus.
Where does Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers) come from?
Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers) is a Mozambican dish from Maputo, Mozambique.
Can Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Rissóis de Camarão (Mozambican Shrimp Turnovers) take to make?
About 2 h in all: 50 minutes prep and 40 minutes cooking, plus 30 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
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