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.

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!!!

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