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:
- Mix equal portions milk and powdered sugar and boil. (Tonight, I used 2 cups, which was WAY more than enough
- 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)
- 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?)
- 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:
- Get bigger shrimp!
- 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!