With this in mind Two Oceans Wines teamed up with Carey Boucher-Erasmus, the mastermind and creative genius of the blog Bits of Carey, who has created a recipe for coconut prawns, served with a Thai mayonnaise dip and Two Oceans Pinot Grigio. The wine's upfront fruit bouquet and flavours of pears, green apple and a hint of litchi bring out the best in the juicy prawns and their crunchy coconut coating.
So here you go – you can tick at least one less bit of creative thinking off your to-do list!
COCONUT PRAWNS AND THAI MAYONNAISE DIP
Wine pairing: Two Oceans Pinot Grigio
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 3 minutes
Ingredients:
400 g frozen prawn tails - thawed, cleaned and peeled
¼ cup (60 ml) cake flour seasoned with ½ tsp (2.5 ml) each of salt and pepper
2 large eggs, beaten
½ cup (125 ml) desiccated coconut (medium or coarse)
½ cup (125 ml) Panko breadcrumbs* or coarse dried breadcrumbs
Cooking oil for deep frying
Dip:
¼ cup (60 ml) creamy mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ tsp (2.5 ml) grated ginger
½ tsp (2.5 ml) finely chopped red chillies
3 Tbs (45 ml) chopped coriander
juice and zest of 1 lime (or ½ a lemon)
1 tsp (5 ml) fish sauce to taste
Garnish:
1 cucumber, spiralled or julienned, dressed in 1Tbs (15 ml) of white wine vinegar or rice wine vinegar
1 lime, cut into wedges
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
Fresh coriander leaves
Method:
Combine the coconut and crumbs on one plate. Have the seasoned flour and beaten eggs ready. Leave a clean plate aside, as well as one lined with a paper towel.
Coat the prawns in the cake flour, followed by the egg and lastly a generous coating of coconut and crumbs. Set aside on the clean plate.
Combine all the dip ingredients together and decant into dipping bowls.
Fry the prawns in moderately hot oil for three minutes. The crumbs should be lightly golden in colour. Place crispy, cooked prawns on the paper-lined plate to absorb excess oil.
TIP: Fry prawns in batches to prevent clumping together and make sure the oil is not too hot or the crumbs will burn and the prawn meat will still be raw inside.
Serve prawns piled onto a plate with dipping sauce on the side. Garnish with lightly pickled cucumber, lime wedges, chilli and coriander leaves.
For the banters and gluten intolerant: replace cake flour with tapioca flour and bread crumbs with more coconut.
* Panko crumbs are Japanese dried breadcrumbs. You can find packets of them at Asian grocery stores. These crumbs give a fantastic crunch!