The beauty of restaurant recipes is the ability to adapt them to suite your particular tastes and needs. This is a great appetizer that could make a complete meal with just a couple of side-dishes.  Outback Steakhouse™ serves their Gold Coast Coconut Shrimp with a signature “Creole Marmalade”, but you may want to try another dipping sauce if you’re not partial to orange marmalade.

These are tender crispy shrimp in a beer batter with a light flaky coconut coating on the outside.  They offer just the right amount of sweetness and taste delicious with the tangy tart flavors that come in the Creole marmalade.

I would recommend using the largest shrimp possible, but don’t hesitate to make them with whatever is available (other than tiny bay shrimp).  If you have some friends who don’t like shrimp or seafood, try this with tender chicken breast cutlets and they’ll be very impressed.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flat beer
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 2 cups sweetened coconut flakes (7 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 jumbo shrimp
• Vegetable oil for frying
• Paprika

Marmalade Sauce

• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 2 teaspoons stone-ground mustard (with whole grain mustard seed)
• 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
• Dash salt

Directions

1. Combine the beer, flour, 1/2 cup of coconut flakes, sugar and salt in medium bowl.
2. Mix this completely with a wire whisk or electric mixer.
3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
4. Prepare the Creole marmalade sauce by combing the orange marmalade, mustard, horseradish and salt in a small bowl.
5. Mix thoroughly, cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour to allow all the flavors to come together.
6. If your shrimp need to be de-viened or shelled, do that now, leaving a bit of shell on the tail as a handle.
7. Preheat the oil in a deep pot of fryer to 350 degrees F. Make sure you have enough oil to completely cover the shrimp.
8. Place the remaining coconut in a shallow bowl.
9. Completely dry the shrimp before battering.  If your shrimp is not completely dry, the batter will not stick properly.
10. Sprinkle shrimp with a light dusting of paprika.
11. One at a time, dip the shrimp into the batter.  Make sure it’s thoroughly coated other than the tail.
12. Place the battered shrimp into the coconut and lightly roll it around to completely cover it in coconut.
13. Deep fry each shrimp for 2 to 3 minutes each or until it reaches a nice golden brown.  You’ll need to turn them once or twice during the process.
14. Drain the shrimp on a paper towel.
15. Server with a small bowl of Creole marmalade sauce.