ISO REC for Coconut Shrimp

[tsim]

I was at a Chinese restaurant in Madisonville, Kentucky once and the owner had a really good coconut shrimp dish. But instead of a coconut batter around the shrimp, she had made a coconut shrimp sauce. It had a pink look to it.

Sorry if this recipie is already posted or if it can be found easily on the web. I tend to be the guy that wanders in a store aisle for 10 minutes, finally asks an assistant where the item I'm looking for is just to find it right in front of me!

 

[boufa06]

This might be the recipe you are looking for.

 

[tsim]

maybe...

That very well may be it. I'll have to try it some time to see if it comes out the same way. I noticed though that the recipie calls for sherry. I don't think I could use sherry. Any idea for a substitute?

By the way, you're amazing at finding these recipies online! Thanks so much!

 

[boufa06]

tsim, you are most welcome. I hope the recipe turns out well for you. What is the reason you want to substitute sherry?

 

[tsim]

haha! Well, I'm not really supposed to have alcohol on campus. (You may note my post about using a Jack Daniel's Marinade, but the bag clearly says "Nonalcoholic." Even then I was careful bringing it on campus.) So, sherry might be a little difficult to have. I'd love to just have a couple bottles of cooking wine, but I doubt they'd even let us have that.

 

[boufa06]

In that case, you can use apple cider instead. If you leave it out altogether, your sauce may not be affected all that much. I use coconut milk all the time in my cooking without ever using any alcoholic drink as a flavouring.

 

[tsim]

Wow! Never thought of apple cider. I'm really interested to see how this turns out now! Thanks again for all the great help!

 

[Half Baked]

I'd love to just have a couple bottles of cooking wine, but I doubt they'd even let us have that.

In lieu of buying cooking wine, just buy broth or juice. The bottles of 'Cooking Wine' are really a horrible substitute for any wines.

 

[tsim]

What kind of broth or juice would you suggest?

 

[mish]

I was at a Chinese restaurant in Madisonville, Kentucky once and the owner had a really good coconut shrimp dish. But instead of a coconut batter around the shrimp, she had made a coconut shrimp sauce. It had a pink look to it.

Sorry if this recipie is already posted or if it can be found easily on the web. I tend to be the guy that wanders in a store aisle for 10 minutes, finally asks an assistant where the item I'm looking for is just to find it right in front of me!

Tsim, since you had the dish at a Chinese restaurant, perhaps this dish & sauce may be closer to the one you are looking for:

Chinese Food Recipes - Free Chinese Recipes for Coconut Shrimp

 

[Half Baked]

What kind of broth or juice would you suggest?

Apple cider, white/red grape juice, chicken or beef broth. Just come here and ask for a suggestion because it all depends on the recipe.

It's exciting to us to see a new cook developing.

 

[tsim]

mish, I think yours may come closer. Although I don't mind trying out two different ways! I like coconut shrip either way! Thanks for all the help guys! I'll probably try the recipies out next month when I get my groceries for February.

 

[tsim]

Ok! Got my groceries for February and I tried out the coconut shrimp dish. I was missing a couple ingredients from both types of recipies (dry mustard on one and heavy cream on the other), so I kind of had to wing it! For a first effort, it actually turned out ok!

For the sauce, my brother and I just talked for awhile and put our heads together. I had told him I didn't have a cream, and so he suggested making one. We ended up deciding on a mix of the following:

1. Mix equal portions milk and powdered sugar and boil. (Tonight, I used 2 cups, which was WAY more than enough
2. Once the milk/sugar mix has finished boiling, let it cool for awhile and wisp occasionally. (I should note here that my brother actually suggested that I needed to freeze it, and I thought of trying to "whip" the mix, but I didn't have a wisp attachment for my mixer)
3. Once the mixture has cooled a bit, add a portion of coconut creme equal to the milk and powdered sugar. Boil that. (Again, my brother here suggested I freeze it up again and boil it down a couple times, but I didn't see much point to it. Was I right?)
4. Add flour to thicken.

After that I'll probably change a lot of what I did from tonight. I actually let the shrimp set in pineapple juice for a little while (I think next I'll let them sit for 30 mins), and then dipped them in the mixture. I then dipped them in flour and coconut flakes, but the batter didn't really stick well, and it really fell apart when I pan-fried them. I know now that deep frying would have been a better option, but I probably should also use bigger shrimp next time too. These were only about 1 inch in diameter, maybe. In any case, I fried the shrimp in a mix of ground cayenne, apple cider vinegar, honey, oil and coconut cream. The ground cayenne idea came from one of the sites, the coconut cream from another. One of the recipies called for vinegar, and while I was looking for some I saw apple cider vinegar, which I had remembered HB suggesting apple cider, so I tried that. Like I said, unfortunately, the batter didn't stick too well, so I didn't get much opportunity to taste it. The sauce was AMAZING though!! It was really close to the coconut shrimp recipe I had in Kentucky.

So, in summation to a really long post, here's what I plan on doing next time, and I'd love to hear your all's thoughts on all this:

1. Get bigger shrimp!
2. Deep fry rather than pan fry.
   • I think I'll still use the cayenne, oil, coconut, apple cider vinegar and honey
     mix. I want to see if my combo would've worked! What do you all think?

I also added some pineapple juice and slices to my serving (I split some for my brother), and it seemed to work out alright.

Thanks again too all! And now concludes one BIG post!