The Kitchen Whisperer

Coconut Shrimp with sweet dipping sauce

March 29th, 2012 |

There are few things in life, food-wise, that I don’t think I could ever get sick of or have too much of. I mean growing up we were really, REALLY poor so often we had repeats of meals or the same meal every week. Sundays were roast/potatoes/carrots and beef soup. Mondays were hot roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes. Can’t remember about Tuesday but Wednesday’s were stuffed peppers, Thursdays were some type of casserole, Fridays religiously was spaghetti and garlic bread while Saturdays were a free-for-all (hoagies, pizza, breakfast for dinner, etc..). Now don’t get me wrong, as I love all of those foods but after eating them riotously week after week you tend to get sick of the stuff. For years you couldn’t get me to touch a stuffed pepper or pasta but as I got older and started to cook for myself I ventured out and went against my ‘norm’ – creamy seafood sauce over angel hair, beef bourguignon, rissotto, etc… THEN it wasn’t until I went to this one restaurant in Pittsburgh about 20 years ago that I discovered Coconut Shrimp. OH MY DEAR LORD! It was if I had a calling! What made them so amazing was the crispness of the coconut with the crunch and thisAMAZING sweet and thick dipping sauce for it. Now see, I hate, I mean HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE cocktail sauce. I’ll make it and even posted my recipe for it on Facebook but that doesn’t mean I’ll eat it. It took me years to get it to how it is today.

This one for me is a definite keeper!

Coconut Shrimp with sweet dipping sauce

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Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

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Ingredients

1 cup chunky orange apricot marmalade (if you can’t find the orange apricot, just use all orange)
5 Tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 Tbl garlic, minced
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
¼ tsp fresh ground black pepper
½ – ¾ tsp red pepper flakes (depends on how spicy you want it)
12 ounces of beer, at room temp.
1½ cups AP flour
3 Tbl melted butter
4 eggs, separated
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp paprika
2 lbs. large shrimp, defrosted with tail on
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¾ cup Dessicated Coconut
¾ cup Panko
3 cups canola oil

Instructions

In a bowl, add the marmalade, ginger, garlic, lemon juice, red and black pepper; stir until well combined
Cover the bowl and chill for at least several hours. The longer you wait, the more time your flavors will marry and become even more better.
In another bowl, about 5qts, whisk the beer, flour, melted butter, egg yolks, salt, pepper and paprika into a smooth batter.
Keep the egg whites as you’ll be using them later.
Allow the batter to rest for one hour at room temperature.
In a large bowl mix the Parmesan cheese, coconut and panko.
In a medium-size bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and nice peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the beer batter, until evenly incorporated. Do not whip or stir – fold them as you want the batter to be light and fluffy.
Hold the shrimp by the tail and dip into the batter, coating thoroughly.
Place the batter coated shrimp in the coconut mix and gently press the shrimp into the mixture, covering both sides.
Place the coconut-battered shrimp to a large cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap or foil.
Cover and refrigerate.
Preheat oven to 250 degrees (you’ll be frying in stages so you’ll want to keep the shrimp warm).
Using a 2-3 quart saucepan, heat the Canola oil until it registers 375° on a candy thermometer. If you don’t have a candy thermometer, drop in a spoonful of the batter mix to test the oil temperature. The batter should drop and then quickly bob back to the surface, turning golden in about 1 or 2 minutes.
Using a metal slotted spoon, slide the shrimp into the hot oil – no more than 3-4 at at time. You don’t want to overcrowd the pot.
Using your spoon, gently turn the shrimp around in the pot to fry until golden all over; ~2-4 minutes.
Transfer to a rack lined with paper towels to drain.
Once drained move them to a tray in the warmed oven.
Serve with the dipping sauce.