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Crispy Coconut Shrimp and Shallots
![Crispy Coconut Shrimp and Shallots](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/06/15/multimedia/cr-coconut-shallot-shrimp-gfjm/cr-coconut-shallot-shrimp-gfjm-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 5tablespoons unrefined coconut oil or olive oil or a mixture of both
- 1large shallot, sliced into thin rings (about a heaping ½ cup)
- 1cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- Salt and black pepper
- 1pound large raw shrimp (20 to 25 count), peeled and deveined, patted dry
- 1tablespoon cornstarch
- 1cup orange juice
- 1tablespoon lime juice
- 1tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2teaspoons fish sauce
- ½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes
- ¼ cup coarsely chopped cilantro
- Freshly steamed rice, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat 3 tablespoons of coconut oil in a large, 10- to 12-inch skillet (preferably non-stick) over medium. Once fully melted, stir in the shallots and once they are rapidly sizzling, about 2 minutes, stir in the coconut flakes so they get coated in oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper and sauté, stirring frequently until both the shallots and coconut are golden brown and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Take off heat, transfer coconut and shallot to a paper towel-lined plate, set aside and wipe the pan clean.
- Step 2
In the same pan, add the remaining 2 tablespoons coconut oil and heat on high. Once hot add the shrimp in a single layer, if possible, and cook, turning them over occasionally (or stirring if the pan is more crowded) until cooked through and thoroughly pink, 4 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate. Wipe the pan clean and turn heat down to low.
- Step 3
Whisk the cornstarch into 2 tablespoons water to make a slurry. Add the orange juice and lime juice to the pan, then the cornstarch slurry, sugar, fish sauce and red-pepper flakes and stir to combine and cook over a low simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Season as needed with salt and black pepper. Turn off heat.
- Step 4
Serve immediately by first spooning the rice into bowls, then place the shrimp atop with the sauce generously spooned over. Toss the cilantro with the coconut and shallots and sprinkle on top of the shrimp.
- To help keep the coconut crunchy, top the shrimp right before serving.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
This is a delicious, weeknight dish. Instead of drizzling the sauce on top of the shrimp, I put the shrimp into the sauce to warm them up. The shallot/coconut flakes topping was almost like sweet bread crumbs and provided a crunchy, GF texture. I will keep this in my shrimp recipe rotation for sure.
The dish should be called "Shrimp with crispy coconut and shallots". There is nothing crispy about the shrimp! Starting with shrimp with shells, whole oranges, and whole limes, the dish took me 65 minutes to make. Although I like all the ingredients, I did not much like the dish --- I didn't find the cornstarch-thickened sauce appealing.
Cornstarch is the bane of any dish. Use your spice grinder and powder up some tapioca as a thickener.
Sauce is good on tofu. I aded dab of sambal oolek .
Added the shrimp to the sauce and also lime leaf, which I had on hand. Juice was mandarins because that’s what I had, and lime. One of the best recipes I’ve made in a long time. The lime leaf took it to the next level for sure.
I made it w coconut rice! Did not disappoint
Made this dinner last night exactly per the directions and it was absolutely wonderful!
Brilliant- cooked exactly as suggested, great & unusual combination of tastes/freshness from the shrimp with coconut oil and citrus, plus textures (crunchiness from the roasted shallots and coconut flakes). Sauce was great! Rice goes great with that. Well done!
Made this for dinner last night and it brought me back to lazy days on beach with the family - but instead I was on my couch (lol) basically had everything for this in my kitchen already too, minus the shrimp and orange juice and lime. I just bought a small carton of orange juice which made it easy.
How would this be with coconut rice???
Used Thai Jasmin rice; it soaked up the sauce beautifully.
This was good! I used chili crisp instead of chili flakes which added a nice crunch.
Cornstarch substitute -- all purpose flour -- use twice as much if the recipe calls for cornstarch
Wonderful week night dish with layered, bright flavours! Like others I tossed the shrimp right into the sauce. I added some roasted broccoli to the sauce as well to introduce a vegetable to make this more of a complete meal. I substituted soya sauce instead of fish sauce which worked well. Will definitely make this one again.
already juiced orange is the way to go here!
Delicious and light. Definitely will make this again.
We thought this was pretty tasty but consuming all that orange juice for dinner makes for a really bad nights sleep. Both my wife and I were up half the night and when we finally fell asleep were having nightmares.
This was fantastic. Two modifications: Ran out of orange juice so made up the difference with pineapple juice. Short on shallots so made up the difference with onion. The onion did not harm, and I think the pineapple with the orange could be an upgrade. And the shrimp had a nice crisp sear from the coconut oil on high.
Just made this — perfect for a 90 degree day when I can’t even look at the oven. Our small town market didn’t have shallots so I sliced up an onion instead and it worked fine. Will def put this in rotation!
This was SO good. Made exactly as written except for using brown sugar instead of white.
This is delicious. I served it with coconut rice and roasted broccoli. My husband and I ate the whole thing in one sitting. We are beyond stuffed but we couldn’t help ourselves. I used cornstarch and couldn’t taste it. Also, I forgot to buy cilantro so used some fresh mint I had in the fridge and it was very tasty with the shallots and coconut flakes.
No one in my family thought this was very good, although it looked gorgeous, there wasn't as much flavor as expected. A real bummer...
This is one of my favorite dishes that my wife cooks. It feels like eating fried coconut shrimp on the beach, but the ingredients are available any time of year. A real winner of a weeknight meal! Thanks to the author!
Very interesting. We loved the topping, were not such fans of the sauce. I will work on a sauce to try a different time. I did add some mushrooms, orange bell pepper and baby spinach because I always add what I have to stir fries. I also took the advice of some reviewers and put the shrimp in the sauce, but we just did not like the sauce. I'll look for a different sauce and will definitely be back for the shallot, coconut, cilantro topping. yum!
For a few reasons, I tweaked the recipe a bit, one of which was that I dislike cornstarch sauces. So, I prepared the topping and the sauce first and allowed the sauce (without any thickening) to reduce by almost a half. I added the (previously) cooked rice to the sauce and kept that warm while I sauteed the shrimp. It was delicious!
this was a hit! I did not have unsweetened coconut flakes so used sweetened and lett off the sugar. it was easy and had a great flavor and texture.
The topping for the shrimp was great. The sauce was super bland and didn’t taste like much other than orange juice.
This was such a great weeknight recipe. I used bottled orange juice and I did indeed add corn starch- this is a weeknight dish after all. The folks in the notes seem to be forgetting that. It was lovely. Added some chili crisp and it really brought the whole dish together
I made as written except with the addition of the shimp into the sauce until cooked through as suggested by others. We found this unexpectedly delicious! Served with coconut rice and grilled asparagus. Definitely a keeper!
Hubby loved this. Skip the oil for the coconut & shallots: air fry the shallots for 5 minutes, the coconut for 3 or so. Increase the sauce by 25%, and add ginger and soy sauce (it needs more salt to balance the sweetness.) I served this with cauliflower rice tossed with ponzu. Great recipe!
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