Studio 4 Recipes


--- Featured Recipe ---


Coconut Shrimp Lollypops

Coconut Shrimp Lollypops
By Bob Blumer Author of ‘Surreal Gourmet’



Yield: 12 lollypops

Apricot-Ginger Dipping Sauce

¾ cup of apricot jam
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds discarded, minced
2 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Coconut Shrimp Lollypops

1 coconut, ideally prescored (first-timers should buy a spare coconut)
½ cup beer
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
12 jump shrimp (21-25 count; that’s 21 to 30 to a pound) shelled and deveined
3-5 cups peanut oil, or vegetable oil, for flying
1 wedge of watermelon (for presentation)

Place all dipping sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor. Puree. Reserve.

With the coconut sauce and a medium-size bowl in hand, go find your-self a concrete step. Break the coconut in half by banging the centre (along the equator of the coconut) repeatedly on the edge of the step Split the coconut over the bowl and salvage some of the water if possible. Reserve the smaller half of the coconut. Bang the larger half on the concrete to break it into smaller pieces. Back in your kitchen, use a table knife to separate the coconut meat from the shell. Then use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to

Using the fine part of your grater shred 2 cups of coconut. (Not all graters have grates that will work). < Reserve in a shallow bowl.

Pour coconut water into a measuring cup and if necessary top off with beer until you have ¾ cup of liquid. Reserve. If you are using store-bought shredded coconut (and consequently do not have any coconut water), replace mixture with ¾ cup of beer.

In a large bowl, combine flour, coconut water/beer mixture, egg, cayenne, baking powder, and salt. Beat until it is smooth. Add a bit more flour or beer, if necessary, so that the batter has the consistency of thick pancake batter. Reserve.

Use a paper towel to pat dry the shrimp. Tightly wrap each shrimp like a pinwheel (with the tail end of the shrimp on the outside), then place one shrimp on the end of each 6-inch bamboo skewer. Reserve in refrigerator.
Pour oil into a small, tall pot until it is 3 inches deep. Heat oil until it reaches 350 F.
While oil is heating, dip each shrimp in the batter, then pat it down in the coconut shreds so that the entire "lollypop" is covered in coconut shreds. Transfer to a plate.

When oil ready, submerge 4 shrimp at a time into the oil. Don’t worry if the skewers go into the oil. Fry for approximately 2 minutes, or until coconut is golden brown, rotating once or twice. Transfer lollypops to a paper towel.

Skim any wayward coconut shreds from the oil. Adjust heat so that it is 350 F again and continue with the next batch. For a creative presentation, stick the skewers in a watermelon wedge and/or serve the dipping sauce in the unused coconut half.