Coconut-Mango Shrimp

About 4 or 5 years ago I made this dish up as a special - it turned out to be so popular that I had to add it to my menu. Since then it has been the most popular dish in the place and the one that I get the most requests for the recipe. So, here it is.

PARTS LIST

shrimp - about 1/2 pound per person

mango salsa #1

some grated coconut

a little garlic - chopped fine

butter - or margarine

some chopped green onions

LET'S DO IT!

The only way you can screw up shrimp is by over-cooking them so I'd suggest that you use a medium size shrimp (about 25-30 per pound) peeled with the tails on, butterflied and deveined. I leave the tails on because I think it's more attractive, but you can do whatever you want. Real small shrimp don't taste as good and real big shrimp are real easy to over-cook on the outside while leaving raw on the inside. If you are having a lot of side dishes I'd definitely do the shrimp last. They'll only take 4 or 5 minutes max, if you have everything prepped to go. Toss the shrimp into a hot pan with butter - if you're worried about the butter burning you can add just a touch of oil (no expensive tasty oil - corn or safflower is great) and toss them around until they've changed color from grey to pinkish white. That's all -- stop. Remove the pan from the heat - they're done. With the shrimp off the heat add a couple of table spoons of the salsa and a tablespoon of grated coconut for each half pound of shrimp. Throw in a handful of chopped green onion for color and put it back on the heat just until the salsa is hot. Bingo! Let's eat. Now sometimes the coconut you find in the super markets has a lot of sugar added - try to find unsweetened. If you can't you might want to rinse the coconut in water and pat it dry. If it's still too sweet you might want to add some lime/lemon juice in at the end. If you are a cilantro lover you could use cilantro for color instead of the green onion. If you're a garlic fancier this is also real good if you throw in a bunch of garlic when the shrimp are about half cooked. Let me know how it turns out.