Coconut Shrimp: the Taste of Summer

Yesterday our good friend, T came over for lunch. In exchange for the delicious wine she brought, great travel stories, compliments (my bangs are apparently tres European! Who knew?), and bringing her N to play with our girls, we made what is fast becoming our go-to summer recipe, Coconut Shrimp.

I found this recipe in the amazing "On a Stick" from Matt Bites' Matt Armendariz. We've made a few minor modifications to create Coconut Shrimp perfection...well, as perfect as you'll get without a beach and tropical location!

Coconut Shrimp

12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined*

Salt and Pepper

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 egg

3/4 cup Sweetened coconut flakes

1/4 cup almond meal

1/4 cup panko crumbs (approximately)

vegetable oil

*The recipe makes plenty of breading & flour, you could easily make 20 shrimp with the recipe.

Combine flour, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper in a shallow dish; beat egg in a separate bowl. In a third dish, combine coconut, almond meal, and panko. Dredge shrimp in the flour mixture, shake each one off, then dredge in the egg, then dredge in the coconut mixture. Place each shrimp on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Repeat with each shrimp. Refrigerate for an hour. Preheat skillet (we've used both a fryer and a skillet and find a skillet with a small amount of oil works just as well as a fryer without so much waste). Lightly fry, turning once. Serve and enjoy.

Our whole family enjoys this meal. Once you have the ingredients, it's super easy to make. We've made with small shrimp without tails, but find that the larger shrimp retain the mixture and coating better. We've also made the recipe without almond meal and it still tastes fine, just substitute regular flour for the almond mill flour.

Please excuse the weird pictures, we had a pool playdate and I was more interested in eating and talking than photo styling!