Feeling Tropical

It was a rainy Saturday afternoon, my husband(Jay)and I were hanging out on the couch and he asked if I'd ever made coconut shrimp and said "Doesn't that sound good?". Well, I've never made coconut shrimp and in my head I was thinking that it really wasn't what I had in mind but since I had the computer next to me I decided to see what I could find on the subject. And keeping with what has become the theme of my week, I already had everything but the flake coconut. The recipe I found is something I found on allrecipes.com. Great website for finding a good recipe when you don't have one, you don't have inspiration to figure one out on your own or look for a variation on a standby.

So here's what it called for:

1 egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup beer, I had a budlight lime on hand
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups flaked coconut
24 shrimp, I used about 50 small ones because I already had them but next time I'll make sure I use the large prawn style
Oil for frying

What we're going to do:

1.In medium bowl, combine egg, 1/2 cup flour, beer and baking powder. Place 1/4 cup flour and coconut in two separate bowls.

2.Hold shrimp by tail, and dredge in flour, shaking off excess flour. Dip in egg/beer batter; allow excess to drip off. Roll shrimp in coconut.

3.Fry shrimp in batches: cook, turning once, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown. Using tongs, remove shrimp to paper towels to drain.


Prior to making the shrimp I pulled out some peach preserves I had and made a sweet and delicious dipping sauce:

1/2 cp peach preserves or orange marmalade would work too

a few squirts of yellow mustard

and just a sprinkle of chili powder

Mix until smooth, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you serve the shrimp.

Oh, I made a quick rice dish too.

Make some boil in a bag rice,
chop half an onion
dice half a red bell pepper
1/2cup fresh cubed pineapple

Saute the onion and bell pepper together
pour rice in with sauteed onions and peppers and mix around to keep warm
add pineapple and cover and turn to low for 5 minutes

And voila! Easy side to coconut shrimp.

AND....I made a dessert that was sooo easy.

1 angel food cake mix
20oz crushed pineapple

Preheat oven at 350 degrees
Just mix the angel food cake and pineapple together(leave out the water that the box mix calls for)
Add some of the leftover coconut from the shrimp for extra flavor
Bake for 30 minutes in a bundt or tube pan

While this entry isn't exactly a full on veggie inspired meal my husband did make the good point that I used fruits and veggies so I should blog it!