Half-Hearted Food Postings - Double Coconut Shrimp

Last week, I promised another recipe that I saw on social media and this one looked really good. The premise of its exemplary taste was based on the fact that instead of a flour batter, you use coconut cake batter instead. Sounds reasonable. The sauce sounded interesting as well. Here’s the Facebook recipe as originally printed. Please don’t try this at home.

“1 pound colossal shrimp, peeled, deveined, tail on

1 cup coconut cake mix

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

Consistency should be the same as pancake batter.

50/50 mix of coconut and panko

Coconut Shrimp Dipping Sauce

1 cup Orange Marmalade

3 tbsp Chili Crisp

2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

2 tbsp Rice Vinegar

1 tbsp Fish Sauce

1 tsp Sesame Oil”

Spoiler Alert: It was a total failure. The batter made an over-thick breaded coating which also had to cook longer to cook the shrimp. The mix also swelled in the bowl (that does happen sometimes) before I even got my 6th shrimp in the oil.

In addition, the sauce was absolutely heinous. Fish sauce and marmalade. What was I thinking?

But I still thought there was merit in the idea, so I rewired it a little. The second iteration was actually very good.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound colossal shrimp, peeled, deveined, tail on

1 cup coconut cake mix*

2 eggs

3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs

3/4 cup sweetened coconut

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups canola or vegetable oil

Coconut Shrimp Dipping Sauce

1/2 cup Orange Marmalade

1/2 cup sweet chili sauce

1 tbsp Chili Crisp

METHOD

Instead of making the cake mix into a batter, we’ll use the classic flour/egg/breading method.

*Maybe I’m missing something, but I couldn’t find coconut cake mix at any of my regular grocery stores, so I had to order, from Amazon, the “recommended” brand: Dolly Parton’s Coconut Cake Mix. If you can find another brand, I’m sure it will be fine.

First set up your station: one bowl with cake mix, the second with beaten eggs and 1/2 of the salt, and in the third bowl, mix the panko and coconut together with the rest of the salt.

Line a plate with paper towels and set aside.

In a fry pan, heat the oil to 365 degrees over medium-high heat. Watch the temperature, constantly adjusting the heat, because it can go from 300 to 450 in no time. Typically, when you’re frying larger things like chicken pieces, the oil temp goes down when you put food in it. But the shrimp are small so they have no real effect on the temp.

Working with 1 shrimp at a time, toss it in the cake mix to coat completely.

Dust off any excess, then dip it into the egg mixture. Let any excess egg drip back into the bowl, then toss in the panko mixture, pressing the crumbs into the shrimp to adhere. Transfer to a plate.

Working in batches of 5 or 6 shrimp, depending on the size of your pan, fry in the oil, stirring or flipping the shrimp as needed so they brown evenly, until deep golden-brown, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer to the plate to drain. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

I wouldn’t say I’m dissuaded from trying Facebook recipes. Let’s just say I wouldn’t try one out with company on the way.