Tag Archives: coconut

Coconut Covered Shrimps

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Filed under appetizers, entree, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, seafood, shrimps, silpat, snacks, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

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If you live around me, you know that i offer cooking classes all the times. Cooking classes to novice chefs and to more advanced cooks. I try to offer various dinner ideas so as to appeal to everyone. It can be learning to cook healthy quick dinner ideas, or to perfect a technique, or simply to learn a style of cooking that one is not familiar with. No matter the audience, no matter the menu, I am having fun because I am in a kitchen playing and teaching.

If you go to this link, you will be able to view the times and menu of each cooking classes though this month, my availability has been limited due several elements.

Any way, at one of my latest cooking classes, we focused on Asian Cooking. On the menu, we had Coconut Covered Shrimps, Curry and Mint Chicken Kebabs, Organo Salmon Spring Rolls, and Sushi.

Today I would like to offer you the recipe of coconut covered shrimps. It is easy, fast, delicious, very inexpensive and most likely to please everyone at your house little and big.

Ingredients to make 50 coconut covered shrimps:

  • 1 bag of uncooked frozen shrimps from Costco ( I like to shop there, the products are great quality, and very inexpensive compared to many other grocery store. Of course, you would not have to fix the whole bag)
  • 1 bag of 14 oz of sweetened coconut flakes
  • 3 eggs 
  • 2 cups of flour
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 2 jars of sweet and sour ( unless you want to make your very own).
  1. Defrost the amount of shrimps you wish to use. I had a whole crowd, so we used the whole bag.
  2. Remove the tail of each shrimp.
  3. Mount the shrimp on a small wooden skewer. Set aside, ad prepare your food station.IMG_1066
  4. In a large bowl, place 2 cups of flour. In another bowl, beat the 4 eggs with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 of pepper. Mix well. And in another bowl, empty the coconut flakes.
  5. Dip the shrimps in the flour, then in the egg mixture, then in the coconut and place them onto the large silpat that you would have placed on a large perforated sheet.  You will need 3 large silpats to cook them all.IMG_1040
  6. Turn the oven to 400, and when the oven has reached its temperature, spray some olive oil, or coconut oil over the shrimps.
  7. Bake the shrimps for 8 to 10 minutes or until the shrimps have turned pinkish and the coconut has become a golden brown.IMG_1042
  8. Eat them as they come out of the oven with a bit of sweet and sour sauce. Yum!!! You will see that it is hard to stop at a couple;-)IMG_1071

Easy, fast, healthy and delicious, my motto!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Coconut Covered Shrimps

  • Servings: 8-10 people
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

IMG_1071

Ingredients to make 50 coconut covered shrimps:

  • 1 bag of uncooked frozen shrimps from Costco ( I like to shop there, the products are great quality, and very inexpensive compared to many other grocery store. Of course, you would not have to fix the whole bag)
  • 1 bag of 14 oz of sweetened coconut flakes
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 cups of flour
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 2 jars of sweet and sour ( unless you want to make your very own).

 

  1. Defrost the amount of shrimps you wish to use. I had a whole crowd, so we used the whole bag.
  2. Remove the tail of each shrimp.
  3. Mount the shrimp on a small wooden skewer. Set aside, ad prepare your food station.
  4. In a large bowl, place 2 cups of flour. In another bowl, beat the 4 eggs with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 of pepper. Mix well. And in another bowl, empty the coconut flakes.
  5. Dip the shrimps in the flour, then in the egg mixture, then in the coconut and place them onto the large silpat that you would have place d on a large perforated sheet. You will need 3 large silpats to cook them all.
  6. Turn the oven to 400, and when the oven has reached its temperature, spray some olive oil, or coconut oil over the shrimps.
  7. Bake the shrimps for 8 to 10 minutes or until the shrimps have turned pinkish and the coconut has become a golden brown.
  8. Eat them as they come out of the oven with a bit of sweet and sour sauce. Yum!!! You will see that it is hard to stop at a couple;-)

Easy, fast, healthy and delicious, my motto!!!

 

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

If you like what you read and see, please share. Merci Beaucoup!!!

Coconut Ice-Cream

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Filed under dessert, ice-cream. sorbet, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

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Yesterday, out of curiosity and out of nostalgia, I bought a fresh coconut. Though I was not certain what to do with it, I searched the net and found out that you can make coconut milk and coconut flakes. I made both and was so proud of myself. I never knew that I would have been able to make such fancy things;-))))

So I was left with a cup or so of coconut milk and decided to make ice-cream with it, or sorbet. Of course that cup of coconut milk was not going to make a lot so I added more coconut milk from a can.

Ice-cream has usually a cream and a custard base, but this ice-cream really has nothing besides coconut milk and sugar.

Ingredients for 4:

  • 2 1/2 cup of coconut milk
  • 3/4 cup of sugar, honey or agave ( I used agave syrup).
  1. In a large bowl, mix the coconut milk and the sugar.
  2. if you have an ice-cream churn, turn it on and pour the mixture in it. Let the ice-cream churn do its magic and within 20 minutes you will have some yummy ice-cream.
  3. It will be still very soft so place this soft ice-cream into a container and freeze for 1 hour.photo
  1. If you do not have an ice-cream churn, simply pour the mixture into a container and place this container in the freezer.
  2. Every 30 minutes, take the container out and with a fork mix the mixture to fluff it up. Repeat this step until the ice-cream is getting thick and the consistency of your liking.
  3. C’est tout!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Fresh Coconut Milk and Toasted Coconut Flakes from Scratch

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Filed under What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

photo 4

It is so funny how some memories will stick with you throughout your life. My mom, much like me, would buy food that she did not know just to find out what it tasted like. She not only introduced us to many food that we would have not normally been exposed to, but she also taught us that it is important to try things once. You just never know if you are going to like it. She would buy fruits from Asia, the tropical islands… wherever it came from. I will always remember when she bought some lychees, or dragon fruits. We were disgusted just to look at those strange looking fruits, but they tasted so good that their appearance did not matter at the end.

It was the same with coconut. One day she came home with a coconut. It took us a while to try to open it. At the end i think that my dad hit the shell with a hammer so hard that the coconut broke in tens of pieces. The flesh stayed on the shell which made it very difficult to remove it and use it. I think that my mom did not really make anything with it. She just gave us some of the coconut shell “flesh” and we try to eat the flesh of  it as best as we could.

Yesterday when I saw those coconuts at the grocery store, I finally decided to buy one. I did not really know what to so with it, nor did I know how to open it but that was such a great memory that I wanted to see if that fresh coconut would taste as good as what i remembered. So i researched  how to open it and this is what was suggested:

1. place the coconut on a towel and hammer clean nails in the soft spots of the coconut. Turn the coconut upside down with the holes facing down and shake the coconut so that the “coconut water” will drain out.photo 1

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2. Then wrap the coconut with the same towel and with a hammer, hit the coconut so as to make a crack in the shell.photo 3

3. With your fingers, pry the coconut open and the coconut fruit/ meat should detach from the shell.photo 4

4. rinse the coconut meat. And with a potato peeler, peel the brown skin.photo 5

What to do with fresh coconut??

  •  You can eat it raw– it is quite good.. though a bit different than what you may be accustomed to if you have only eaten it baked or toasted. You can either shave it, or grate it and include it in you breakfast or salads.
  • You can toast the coconut and use that way in many recipes.photo 2
    1. shred or slice the coconut thinly and bake it in the oven at 300 for 10 minutes stirring every 5 minutes to make sure that the coconut browns evenly.
    2. You can also toast coconut on the stove top. Spread shredded coconut into a large skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until coconut is mostly golden brown. Coconut will probably brown a bit less evenly in a skillet than in the oven.
  • You can make Coconut milk:photo 3
    1. grate the meat and immerse the meat in some fresh water, adding 2 cups of water for the meat of one whole coconut.
    2. An easier and faster way to make coconut milk is to place the coconut flesh and coconut water in a blender, adding two cups hot water.
    3. Blend until the coconut and water forms a smooth slurry.
    4. Pour coconut mixture through a fine sieve or a milk bag and then  into a mason jar or a pitcher.
    5. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible, and transfer the coconut milk to the refrigerator.

C’est tout!!! So what are the incentives in making the toasted coconut and the coconut milk by yourself?

In Nourished Kitchen, the author of the blog points out the many health benefits of having fresh coconut versus canned milk. He points out that “Fresh, homemade coconut milk is also richer in vitamins, food enzymes and nutrients than coconut milk from a tin.  Indeed, fresh coconut milk contains three times as much vitamin C as canned coconut milk and is richer in thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate and panthothenic acid.  Moreover, fresh raw coconut milk contains vitamin E, a heat-sensitive, fat-soluble vitamin that is otherwise absent in canned coconut milk”.

So now that I have shown you what to do with fresh coconut, I hope that you will give it a try,  and make fabulous recipes.

We used ours to make coconut ice cream and coconut macaroons;-) Yum!!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

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Tropical Fruit Salad

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Filed under dessert, fruit, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Even though my children eat very little fruits, I keep on buying them…I know, I know…believe me but nothing goes to waste at my house, it just means that I have to either be creative to cook what I buy, or find recipes that inspire me:-) This week, while I was looking for ripe mangos to make sorbet, I saw those beautiful pineapple, papayas, star fruit… and of course I had to buy them:-) Now I have to find recipes to fix all of that.

But last night, I thought a good light fruit salad would be a good ending to my meal…so here it is.

Ingredients: 1 cup of pineapple, 1 cup of diced mango, 1 cup of diced papaya, 2 Tbsp of coconut flakes, 2 tbsp of brown sugar, 4 tbsp of flavored rum ( I had vanilla rum from St Marteen). 1 tbsp of crystallized Ginger chips. 6 leaves of mint chopped very thinly. Rum Flavored whipped cream.

Dice all the fruits in very small cubes. In a large bowl, place all the fruits, the rum, the sugar, the mint and mix well. Set aside for 1 hour so that the fruits will absorb the rum. Before serving add the coconut, the crytallized ginger to the fruit mixture.

Rum Flavored Whipped Cream: Place 1 cup of heavy cream and 2 tbsp of rum in the bowl of a mixer. Mix on high until the cream starts forming peaks. Add sugar if needs be, maybe 1/2 tbsp.

Serve the fruit salad in martini glasses. Top the fruit salad with a dollop of whipped cream. Chop a few mint leaves and sprinkle them on top of the whipped cream. Serve with speculos. Yum!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!