Friday, June 17, 2016

Prawns inspired by Scarlet Feather for Cook the Books #FishFriday Foodies

I want to start off by saying that I am so happy to have been assigned a book that I enjoyed.  Our last BCCBCC club choice was a bomb but it did inspire a wonderful Carribean Pork Stew that we enjoyed even if I didnt enjoy the book that inspired it. It was doubly awful because it followed on the heels of our last Cook the Books selection Burnt Toast makes you Sing Good that I absolutely adored.

I was ready for a good read but was also in the middle of packing up the house as we are moving and working from dawn to dusk so I ordered up this month's selection Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy from audible.com.  This unabridged version was performed by Barbara Caruso and ran for over 20 hrs.  I was glad I ordered it up on audible because I never would have had time to sit and read this. Barbara Caruso did a good job at narrating however sometimes her voice could get sharp and grating. This did not detract from the enjoyment I got from the story.  I want to thank Claudia of Honey from Rock for choosing this novel.  You still have a month and a half to join in the fun, go to Claudia's invitation post to learn how.

Scarlet Feather Audiobook

This is the story of  Cathy Scarlett and Tom Feather who met in catering school and have decided to go into business together.  They find a building on New Years Eve and the story covers their lives and the lives of those surrounding them for a full year, until the following New Years Eve, as they work on getting their business up and running.  

I thought the story was very realistic.  It would be nice if when you are starting a business the rest of your life could be put on hold but it can't and Cathy and Tom's didn't.  They still needed to deal with relationships, bills, responsibilities and social engagements.  

The results are a year in their lives much like a year in ours.  There were tears of joy, laughter, sadness and frustration.  There were good times and bad and you felt like you were with Cathy and Tom through it all.

Talk about food.....there was food of every shape, size and description.  You could pretty much make anything you wanted and find inspiration in it from this book.  Prawns were mentioned several times and since Fish Friday Foodies was coming up I decided to make some.

What is Fish Friday Foodies?  Well it is another great group that I started and have had a couple dozen of my blogging friends join.  We take turns hosting and choosing a theme, then on the third Friday of each month, we share our recipes with each other and our readers.  


This month my friend, April of Angels Home Sweet Homestead, is hosting and chose the theme of  pan or deep fried.  We would love to have your blog included at FFF.  You can request membership through our facebook page or by commenting on this post, leaving your email address and the name of your blog.

These Coconut Prawns fit the bill for both clubs this month!!! It's the little things in life that get me excited.  I love when I can kill two groups with one post LOL


They are relatively easy to make but time consuming, unless you buy your shrimp pre cleaned.  I did not, so I had to peel and clean them prior to dredging them in flour, then in a beer mixture and lastly in the coconut.  Then you get to rest for a half hour while they chill out in the fridge.  I poured myself a glass of Louis Latour Pouilly Fuisse.  I will tell you more about that tomorrow when you visit my #FrenchWinophiles post.  You are going to read my post tomorrow, right?  Thank you, I knew you would.



Ok, so they aren't prawns....just large shrimp but I won't tell if you don't.  Prawns and shrimp are not the same.  They are, however, both decapod crustaceans.  Meaning they both have 10 legs and ecoskeletons, they both live near the bottom of the ocean,  they taste the same and they are used interchangeably.  Both are primarily called prawns in Europe and shrimp on this side of the pond.


Scarlet Feather is located in Ireland so I am taking blogger privilege and assuming that they used what we would call shrimp and they would call prawns.  Frank just called them terrific!! I served them with a vegetable fried rice as a side and made a dipping sauce of orange marmalade and hoisin garlic marinade.


Coconut Prawns
taken from AllRecipes. com, submitted by LindaV10

1 egg
1/2 c. flour
2/3 c. beer
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 c. flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 c. unsweetened, flaked coconut
24 Prawns or Jumbo Shrimp, peeled and cleaned, tails intact
3 c. oil for frying

Set up a dredging station of three bowls.  In the first bowl, place 1/4 c. flour seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.  Whisk together the 1/2 c. flour, beer and baking powder in the second bowl and place the coconut in the third bowl.

Holding the shrimp by the tail, dredge first in the flour.  Shake off excess and dredge in the beer mixture.  Allow excess to drip off before dredging in the coconut.  Place onto a baking sheet covered with parchment and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a deep pot (I used my cast iron dutch oven) to 350*.  Fry the shrimp in batches until golden brown about 4 minutes per batch.  Print Recipe

Let's move on....we have more fish to fry!!!






29 comments:

  1. Super yummy prawns. I am sure the beer in it must have given an awesome taste.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your shrimp looks delicious!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So hungry now! These look wonderful...one of my favorites!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You learn something new every day, I always thought shrimp and prawns were the same thing. Looks good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I think a lot of people do and they are used interchangeably so I guess they may as well be LOL

      Delete
  5. I use them interchangeably as well. In either case, they do
    look and sound delicious. Just give me one, and I'll know for sure :) Glad to hear you enjoyed the selection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We did have leftovers so there was plenty I could have shared with you Claudia. Thanks for hosting.

      Delete
  6. Audible sounds like the perfect solution. I haven't been able to read a whole book ever since I went to grad school in my 50s and had to read tons of heavy heavy books! Your prawns are gorgeous!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like listening to books, usually when I drive or am on a walk or the treadmill. Give it a try Karen and then join us in the next Cook the Books.

      Delete
  7. Those prawns sound like the perfect inspiration from the book! I'm sure Tom & Cathy would approve!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wendy I soooo love your make that its making me sing 'Yummy, Yummy, Yummy in my Tummy, Tummy, Tummy!' I will try this out but with a smaller prawn kind as that is the one that lies at home. Will let you know how it turns out. Love the coconut addition.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm salivating, looking at the pictures and imagining how good the shrimp I have in the freezer right now would taste if I made them like this. Gotta go and wipe my keyboard down now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When you are done wiping down the keyboard, pull out those shrimp and try them like this. You won't be sorry Sid.

      Delete
  10. Wow. I had never thought to order audio books. Wow. I enjoyed reading this selection, though, even though it was a thick book with little print! :) Great prawns dish. Can't go wrong with this.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I do love a good coconut shrimp/prawn ;-) and these look amazing. Perfect for a catering event and perfect for the book. I'm trying to get back into audio books--this would have been a good one to listen to I bet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Deb, I enjoyed it and thought the narrator did a pretty good job.

      Delete
  12. I've enjoyed audio books when I've gotten them. Great for a long car ride. Plus I'm hooked on shrimp, so enjoyed the recipe too -- thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, they sure are. I have downloaded a couple for our road trip that is coming up next week. This recipe was really good, I hope you try it.

      Delete
  13. Those look so good and I like coconut shrimp but always think they'll be too hard to prepare. I love your recipe and I loved this book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, frying, in my humble opinion, is always a pain but the recipe is easy enough and using the dutch oven helped keep the mess down to a minimum.

      Delete
  14. I admire you on two counts. First for the patience of listening to the audio book for 20+ hours: quite a feat. Second for your beautiful plate of coconut shrimp. Great choice!

    ReplyDelete

I enjoy getting comments and feedback from my audience. Please let me know what you think, keeping in mind that we are all entitled to our own beliefs and opinions. I am happy to hear yours as long as they are stated nicely.