Coconut Sesame Prawns

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My husband is a really nice person. He is very helpful, doesn't lose his temper easily, and is very patient with me. That's not easy! But this week he did something extra-nice! When the doorbell rang early one morning, I assumed it was going to be some salesperson I was going to have to turn away, but instead it was a flower delivery guy, with the biggest bunch of roses I've ever received - 50 long-stemmed red roses, peppered with delicate baby's breath. I couldn't believe my eyes. What a surprise! And when I asked my husband what the special occasion was, he just replied, "No reason. I just wanted to send you flowers." Wow! Blew me away! Thank you, babe! You're the best! :)

Another one of the highs of this week, was when some friends from church sent me a bagful of beautiful, fresh, HUGE prawns for me to cook with. And they cleaned the prawns for me, too! How sweet! :) Now prawns are not a common thing in our home. I am the only one who really eats prawns, and so in all the years we've been married (almost 8), I think I must have cooked prawns 4-5 times. The legend goes that when he was a child, someone told my husband that the tiny shrimp he was eating were actually over-sized worms, and that's why he doesn't eat prawns. At least that's what his mom told me. He insists however, that he once ate a prawn and found that the person who cooked it hadn't cleaned it well, and he could still see the 'poop-shoot'. He claims this was the reason he went off prawns. Both interesting theories, but the bottom line is - he doesn't know what he's missing! 

I love prawns and don't miss a chance to order a prawn dish when we're at a restaurant, but I rarely splurge on prawns, because I don't feel inspired to cook for myself. I really appreciated this kind, and generous gift of prawns! Made me smile.

With prawns these beautiful and large, I knew I wanted to fry some. These are flavors I love with shrimp and I  hope you enjoy this recipe!

Coconut-Sesame Prawns

Ingredients

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp rice flour

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

1 large egg

90ml milk

4 oz freshly grated coconut

3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1 pound, prawns (cleaned, shelled and butterflied)

Method

1. In a small bowl, combine the flours, pepper and salt.

2. In a medium bowl, beat together the egg, milk and sugar.

3. Stir in the flour mixture and beat vigorously till the batter is smooth and silky. Set aside for at least 20 minutes.

4. In a large shallow dish, combine the coconut and sesame and set aside.

5. Pick up one of the prawns. Holding it firmly by the tail, dip first in the batter. Shake off the excess batter, and the dip into the coconut mixture, pressing slightly so that the coconut adheres to the prawns. Set the prawn aside on a clean plate. Repeat one by one, with the remaining prawns. Let the prawns sit for at least 15 minutes before frying.

6. Deep fry the prawns in batches until golden brown. Make sure your oil is hot, and add as many prawns as you can in each batch, without overcrowding the oil. 

7. Serve hot, with wedges of lemon garnished with lots of fresh cilantro, with a dipping sauce of your choice.

I ate these prawns with a simple homemade sauce. I just combined 1/4 cup of mayonnaise with fresh lime juice, a few dashes of hot sauce, some de-seeded chopped fresh chilly and chopped cilantro. Everything was added to taste, and so I don't have a recipe for you. Just wing it. It will taste brilliant. I'm sure of it.

The flavors were brilliant. Think about it - coconut, sesame, lime, cilantro, chilly & prawns - how could that possibly taste bad. I really enjoyed eating this dish, but felt like quite a pig because I had no one to share it with. Don't worry. I didn't eat a whole pound of  prawns by myself. I used only 6 prawns to make a small batch for myself, for lunch. The rest of the prawns (another 8) have been refrigerated for later today. I plan to just pan-fry them with butter and garlic and eat like a little piggy again.