I'm Koo-Koo for Coconut!

Uch, I feel gross.  On and off cheating all week, and then a cheating marathon this weekend.  Pizza, Burgers, Mac 'N Cheese, Italian Heros, Meatball Heros, Potato Chips...  Between all the friends and family in town, and business lunches, I've had so much crap this week I am actually CRAVING healthy food again.  I was going to go back to basics today and have a simple tuna sandwich (which in Caveman Cooking, there's nothing simple about it), but then my friend Julie and I were talking about new dishes I can try and when she mentioned coconut shrimp, we each went wide eyed and started salivating!  I've never tried this before, so let's explore together, shall we?

Went to Whole Foods, and got some organic ingredients.  Bob's Red Mill makes an organic coconut flour (pure ground coconut), but I could not find any organic shredded coconut in the store, so we're going to experiment without it for now, but if it comes out good, I'm going to add it in for next time.  I also wanted to use apricots for the sauce, but they're starting to fall out of season and weren't as sweet as I had hoped, so I bought some peaches instead.  Hopefully this will not be a disaster.  I already had wild caught shrimp (found in the frozen section at Trader Joe's), eggs, spices, honey, and jalapeno (for the dipping sauce which I will explain).

First, the dipping sauce (all ingredients, all organic, all the time).  Into the blender, goes the jalapeno (if you don't like spicy, de-seed it first, otherwise pop the whole thing in, minus the stem), two small garlic cloves, a healthy spoonful of honey, some grated ginger, onion powder, and three skinned peaches.  As I'm blending it, I pour in some lemon juice, until it's ALMOST the desired consistency.  Then I add a little olive oil to finish the consistency to the way I like it, which also gives it a nice sheen.  Then pour into a small sauce pan, add some fresh cilantro leaves and simmer until ready to eat.

Okay, just tasted the sauce.  This is DEFINITELY going on pork chops and chicken in the VERY NEAR FUTURE!!!!  OUTRAGEOUS!!!!  It doesn't even need to be cooked!!!!

Now the shrimp.  First stir a little coconut flour into some beaten eggs to get the consistency of a pancake batter.  Then, grind some black pepper into a separate bowl containing coconut flour (if I had shredded coconut, this is the bowl I would add it to).  Dip the shrimp into the wet, shake off excess batter, then dip into the dry.  Set aside until ready to fry.

In a large frying pan, heat up some coconut oil.  Delicious and GREAT for you!  Many low fat advocates will say coconut fat is saturated fat and therefore bad for you, but not all saturated fats are created equal. Some saturated fats, like coconut oil, can be used by your body for so many good things (look it up yourselves, you lazy bastards), but most saturated fats are bad for you, like from a corn fed cow.  My rule of thumb is, if nature put coconuts near where humans lived, and it's delicious raw, then it can't possibly be bad for you.  Nature knows best, which is why cows don't ever eat corn in the wild.  There is no such thing as low fat on the Caveman Diet since none of the fat you'll eat is bad for you!  Drop those shrimp into the oil, fry for a minute or two on each side until golden brown and put on a paper towel to remove some of the excess oil.

Serve with dipping sauce and enjoy.  I haven't tried it yet, so here I go, while you look at the pics of how they came out.  I'll be right back...

Oh my freaking god, this shit is goooooood!!!!!!!  Caveman LIKE!!!  I might add a little something to the batter next time to give it a little more flavor (or maybe just marinate the shrimp in lemon juice first {this is a visit from the future, DO NOT MARINATE!  See blog titled "Available for Weddings and Bar Mitvah's..." for details}), and I would also add some shredded coconut, but the shrimp are crunchy and succulent!  The sauce is the star though!  Sweet and spicy, and de-friggin-ugga-bugga-licious!  We did it!!!!  We made coconut shrimp!  A dumb kid from Brooklyn with no culinary skills!  And I couldn't have done it without you.  Because without you, I'd be eating a tuna sandwich right now.  Maybe next blog.

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