Posted on: Wednesday, May 4, 2005
RECIPE DOCTOR
Fry up coconut shrimp skewers, but with a lot less fat
By Elaine Magee
Q. I've seen you do restaurant dish remakes in the past year or so in your column. So I'm hoping you can do just one more. I live in Colorado and eat at the Elephant Bar restaurant often. I'm hoping you can send me a light version of their coconut shrimp skewers.
A. Lucky for me I have an Elephant Bar (a Western chain restaurant) near my home, too. I decided to start with the coconut shrimp skewers, one of their most popular appetizers, and spend the next few weeks making over some of their other dishes. We'll be ending with a light version of their Hot Apple Blueberry Cobbler with Walnut Butter Streusel!
Not to worry if you live in Hawai'i (only California, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Kansas and Nevada have Elephant Bar restaurants), because now light versions of some of their best dishes can be made in your home.
For their coconut shrimp, I made an egg white-based batter and oven-fried the coated shrimp instead of deep-frying — saving us from oodles of calories and fat grams. Just so you can serve or enjoy these skewers in style, I included directions for easy pineapple-orange dipping sauce, too.
The original recipe might contain 380 calories, 21 grams of fat, 6 grams saturated fat and 206 mg cholesterol per serving.
Makes about 5 servings
28 large or 14 jumbo fresh or frozen shrimp (about 1ý pounds), raw, peeled, deveined (if using frozen, thaw shrimp) — with or without tails
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse shrimp with cold water; drain well on paper towels until dry. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat the foil with canola cooking spray.
Combine the cornstarch, salt and cayenne pepper in a shallow dish. Place the egg whites in a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until thickened and frothy (just before the soft peaks stage), about 2 minutes. Place the coconut in shallow dish.
Dredge each shrimp in the cornstarch mixture; dip in the egg white, then gently press into the coconut to coat well. On each bamboo skewer spear two large coated shrimp, end to end, or one jumbo sized shrimp. Place the shrimp skewers on the prepared sheet.
Lightly coat the tops of the shrimp with canola cooking spray and bake for 20 minutes or until the shrimps are cooked through and the coconut coating is nicely browned.
Add all the ingredients to a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes. Serve hot or cold.
• Per serving (without dipping sauce): 257 calories, 31 g protein, 16 g carbohydrate, 7 g fat (4.7 g saturated fat, .6 g monounsaturated fat, 1 g polyunsaturated fat), 206 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 621 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 24 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids 0.7 g. Omega-6 fatty acids .2 g. Weight Watchers points 5
• Per serving of dipping sauce (if 5 servings per recipe): 73 calories, .5 g protein, 18 g carbohydrate, .2 g fat (0 g saturated fat, 0 g monounsaturated fat, .1 g polyunsaturated fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 8 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 3 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids 0. Omega-6 fatty acids 0. Weight Watchers points1
COCONUT FRIED SHRIMP SKEWERS WITH ZESTY PINEAPPLE DIPPING SAUCE
Elaine Magee is author of "The Recipe Doctor Cookbook" and "The Flax Cookbook." Readers may reach her at www.recipedoctor.com. Personal responses can't be provided. This column is distributed by Knight Ridder News Service.
