This is my favorite thing to order at the Bonefish Grille (Nice family restaurant specializing in seafood. Nice enough food with pleasant atmosphere). I tried a few times to recreate their appetizer called “Bang Bang Shrimp” and this one came very close! The only problem is the batter – I think the restaurant uses a mixture of cornstarch, flour, and salt. But I just used potato starch I had. You can also use panko as the crust. (Flour-Egg-Panko, in that order)  Use whatever you like – the sauce is more important!  

Ingredients:

Medium size shrimps (thawed, deveined, cleaned, drained)

Salt, pepper, rice wine to marinate (I always use some rice wine for shrimps and chicken before cooking. It gets rid of the odor.)

1-2 Egg white and 3TB (plus more) potato starch for the batter

Sauce ingredients: 2 TB Mayonnaise, 0.5 TB (or more) Chili garlic sauce (Vietnamese kind, not he Sriracha sauce, but the coarse kind called “Tung Ot Toi Viet-Nam.”/ 0.5 TB Thai Sweet Chili Sauce (Mae Ploy Brand)/ some lemon juice and sugar to taste

Garnish: chopped green onion

How to Make:

1) Prepare the shrimp/ marinade for 10-20 minutes/ then pat dry/ mix with 1-2 egg white (depends on how much you are making – enough to coat well)/ put the shrimp in a zip-loc bag and pour 3 TB (or more) amount of potato starch and shake well to coat 

2) Heat up the oil in a medium sauce pan or a frying pan/ fry up the shrimps. It’s better to fry twice – fry once until yellow, drain on paper towel, and then fry again until golden brown. Shrimps become much more crisp this way!

3) Mix the sauce ingredients

4) In a bowl, mix the fried shrimps and the sauce well

5) Garnish with green onion pieces and serve right away!

This is an appetizer I made when I invited the conductor of FM Symphony, Bernie Rubenstein. He loved them and wanted the recipe – hence comes my first posting on the “Jihye’s Kitchen” section.

This recipe was based on the coconut shrimp with honey mustard dipping sauce on a Korean blogger’s site.

http://blog.naver.com/hyleeyan.do?Redirect=Log&logNo=53725960

I changed the sauce to my taste, using Thai Sweet Chile sauce. (Mae Ploy brand) Also I used regular salt and pepper, not the herb salt/ also I added some rice winte to the marinade.

I usually avoid making fried dishes as it’s a waste of so much oil and it’s bad for the environment, but this one is worth the trouble. I will post another fried shrimp appetizer so that you can maximize the use of your oil!

Oil: Canola oil or corn oil works the best. 

Ingredients: Shrimp (Uncooked! Large size works better than jumbo, but it’s up to you.)/ Dash of salt and pepper + 1-2 TB rice wine (depends on the quantity of your shrimp) to marinate the shrimp/ Enough Flour, 1-2 eggs, and Sweetened shredded coconut for batter 

Sauce Ingredients: 1 TB Thai Sweet Chili Sauce (Mae Ploy Brand)/ 0.5TB whole grain mustard (any kind)/ 0.5TB freshly squeezed lemon juice/ 0.5 TB-1TB mayonnaise (Start with this, and adjust according to your taste. You can omit the mayo and mustard as well.)

How to make:

1) Prepare the shrimps (thaw, devein, wash, drain)/ sprinkle salt and pepper and some rice wine – not too much, otherwise shrimps will be too watery

2) Prepare 2 plates – one with flour, one with coconut/ put 1-2 egg(s) in a bowl and whisk with fork. Heat up the oil in a fry pan or a medium sauce pan with heavy bottom. (up to 170C – usually I just drop a little bit of the batter – if the batter drops to the bottom and floats right back, the oil is ready.)

3) Make the sauce

4) Put the shrimps in flour to coat –> then dip in the egg –> then roll over the coconut to coat well. The more you the better!

5) Fry the shrimp until golden brown/ crisp. Don’t crowd the pot too much – fry the shrimps in a few batches! Otherwise the oil temperature drops too quickly and shrimps will not be crisp.

6) Drain on paper towel or wire rack, and serve with the sauce.