Crunchy coconut shrimp / prawns with a spicy Thai MANGO dipping sauce! This sauce is so scrumptious I want to pour it over everything. And really – you could! On cooked meats, seafood, as a salad dressing…..let your imagination run wild!
This is a very special recipe to me because it was created during a visit to a mango farm called Groves Grown Tropical Fruits in Queensland, Australia. I’m fortunate to have travelled fairly extensively around the world, and yet this trip is possibly the one that has affected me most profoundly as an avid foodie, a cook, and a writer.
When you are welcomed by a farmer and his family onto their farm and into their home, walk the soil and see the fruits (literally) of their hard labour, it gives you a new perspective on things.
Last week, I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Ian Groves and his family at Groves Grown Tropical Fruits farm. I expected a tour, some Q&A time, and to learn more about Australian mangos.
But within minutes of pulling up in my hire car, I knew this was not just the offical tour I was expecting when Ian said to me “Let me show you to your room.”
“My room?”, I asked, perplexed. “I have accommodation booked for me in town.”
“Oh no, you must stay here!”, he insisted. Which I gratefully accepted because I had no desire to be driving back and forth 50km on country roads.
And I knew, when I dragged my suitcase into my room and saw this, that this visit was not going to be just “a tour”.
This pretty much set the tone for the entire visit. Warm, welcoming, funny, thoughtful.
I’m sure the Groves family got sick of hearing me exclaim “I’m supposed to be “on the job”, but this feels like a holiday with friends!”.
I spent the day being toured around his extensive farm with his daughter Melanie and the obligatory farm dog, Milly, astounded by the scale, the time, care, labour, science and detail it takes to grow beautiful, plump, juicy mangoes that city folk like myself take for granted.
I was especially pleased to see that some of the mangoes were low hanging. Fantastic for shorties like myself!! 😉
I want to write so much and share so many photos but I know I’ll probably implode my site if I dribble on as much as I could. So I want to share with you one thing that I learned that I didn’t really appreciate before my visit – the mango varieties. Wow. Just wow.
Green mangoes. Red mangoes. Gold ones, giant ones. I was sent home with an extraordinary variety of mangoes, all hand marked by Ian so I wouldn’t forget. 😂 I’ve spent the past week making my way through the stash – eating and cooking half, and freezing the other half (note the absence of reference to giving them away!).
Each member of the Groves family has a favourite type of mango. I love ’em all, but having now tried Kensington Prides, Keitts, R2E2’s and Honey Gold mangoes, I must say I’m quite partial to Keitts! They are the red tone mangoes in the photo below with the tinge of green. Just as juicy, sweet and “meaty” as other varieties, but there is a very mild tang, almost lemony which really appeals to my palette.
I was thrilled that Sandi, Ian’s wife, let me take over the kitchen on the 2nd day so I could experiment with mango recipes!! So I created this recipe while I was there but I must admit, I couldn’t get the sauce quite right (performance anxiety!) so I worked on it once I got back to Sydney until I was happy.
I really wanted this sauce to have some depth, zing and freshness to offset the sweetness of the mango which I thought would be a great accompaniment to the sweet, crunchy shrimp / prawns.
These crunchy prawns / shrimp…so, I have to tell you, the first batch I made was just coated in coconut. But they just weren’t that crunchy! Panko is essential for this Coconut Shrimp. As is using desiccated, rather than flaked or shredded coconut.
Many thanks to to my official taste tester for this recipe, Melanie, Ian’s daughter, for helping me make the prawns just right!!?
Oh!! In all the excitement chattering about my trip, I almost forgot! I did a little video for this Coconut Shrimp / Prawns with Spicy Thai Mango Sauce recipe, along with a little peek at the beautiful Groves Grown Tropical Fruit Farm. And proof that these prawns are absolutely irresistible….you get to see DOZER taste testing!??
Regular readers will know that I don’t fry very often. It is reserved for very special occasions, for food “worth frying” for.
These Coconut Shrimp are worth it. Pinky swear, promise. – Nagi x
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Coconut Shrimp / Prawns with Spicy THAI Mango Sauce
Ingredients
Shrimp / Prawns
- 1 lb / 500 g whole prawns OR 12oz/350g peeled fresh prawns (Note 1)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Black pepper
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup desiccated coconut (Note 2)
- Oil , for frying
Mango Sauce
- 1 cup (packed) fresh mango. roughly diced
- 2 tbsp cilantro/coriander , leaves and stems, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp red onion or eschallots , finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fish sauce (or substitute with light or ordinary soy sauce)
- 1 tbsp sriracha (Note 3)
- 1 tsp red chilli , finely chopped (adjust to taste)
- 2 - 3 tbsp coconut milk (adjust for desired sauce consistency)
Instructions
- Mango Sauce: Place ingredients in a small food processor (or blender or use a blender stick). Whizz until smooth. Adjust salt and spice to taste. Use coconut milk to adjust the consistency.
- Peel and devein the shrimp / prawns. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Whisk egg in a small bowl. Mix panko and coconut in another bowl.
- Dip a prawn in the egg mixture then coat with panko. Repeat with remaining prawns.
- Heat oil in a skillet (Note 4) over medium high heat. Toss in a clotted lump of panko/egg to test for heat - if it sizzles right away and floats to the top, then the oil is hot enough.
- Working in batches, carefully place prawns in the hot oil. Cook for just 45 seconds (Note 5) until golden brown - start counting when you slide the first prawn in and remove the prawns from the oil in the order that you put them in.
- Remove onto a paper towel lined tray to drain.
- Serve warm with Spicy Mango Dipping Sauce!
Recipe Notes:
No nutrition for this….when food is this good, it doesn’t matter! (Also, because it’s fried, I don’t know how to calculate it accurately, sorry!)
This post is brought to you by Aussie Mangoes who arranged my visit to Groves Grown Tropical Fruits. Many thanks to Ian Groves and family for welcoming me into their home, showing me around their beautiful farm, sharing a wealth of information about growing and harvesting mangoes, letting me take over the kitchen to create this recipe, indulging me with incredible food, and officially converting me into a mango snob.❤️
Omg this sounds absolutely amazing!! Can’t wait to try it.
The mango sauce looks so delicious and versatile – is it possible to make a large quantity and freeze batches? How long does it keep in the fridge for?
Thank you so much!!
Hi Nagi. I am an avid follower of your receipes and appreciate you explaining why ‘this is used and not that’. Also appreciate the photos which I screen shoot and take to our only Asian supermarket to buy ingredients. I’ve only just dipped my toe in but so far have made the satay beef sticks, papaw salad and Singapore chilli crab. Yum yum yum!😋. Despite your easy to follow receipe I forgot to put the pasata in the chilli crab – (I
wondered what it was doing on the bench when I’d finished) and had to use already cooked blue swimmer crabs instead of fresh but I did add fresh peeled prawns. Despite all the misses, the family loved it!❤. I am a huge fan of the papaw salad and am wondering if the dressing and the satay sauce are suitable for freezing?
Im thinking of making this!
Can I use canned mango or frozen mango instead of fresh? I have alot of frozen mango in my freezer though
Thank you
Hi Laura – yes use the frozen! N x
Better than any restaurant……loved the sauce n also made your meatball sweet n sour sauce for my husband who doesn’t do spicy….we all had to have multiple dipping bowls….thanx for always scoring a 10 at my house
O M G !! Just had this for dinner…life changing. My husband and I were speechless. SO DARN GOOD. Five stars just doesn’t cut it ⭐️ x 10 to the power of 1000. Forever grateful 🥰
Hi Nagi! Just wondering if I could use frozen mango? No fresh available in winter 😭
I have made this numerous times absolutely love it question is can I freeze this and if so how do I reheat
Thanks
I’ve actually only made the mango sauce, because I like my shrimps a different way, however I must say it became a staple at our house. Chicken, shrimps, sweet potato chips: they all go so well with it! And the sauce always comes out great! Thank you so much for this <3
Oh that’s awesome Karolina! N x
I was a bit nervous about trying this recipe as I have never attempted anything like this before so I watched the Video 3 times & read the notes a couple of times. The Prawns were perfectly cooked, had a delicious flavour & the sauce was to die for.
Beautiful Aussie Mangoes we are so lucky to have them.
I LOVE hearing this Denise!!
I made this, (with dried cilantro… all I had last minute)… and served it over salmon burgers and arugula. This is ridiculous, and I’m kinda mad I didn’t think of this before! How could I have overlooked such delicious ingredient-combos? Make again? 3x in two weeks. Sooooooo….. yes!
WAHOO!!!
All my Christmas lunch dishes today were from Nagis recipes – BBQ prawns 2 ways with spicy thai chilli and lemon garlic butter sauce, crostini, 12 hours lamb shoulders, pomegranate holiday salad, and fruit punch. What can I say, you are the best Nagi! Easy to follow, absolutely delicious and everyone loved it. Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Thanks for idea! I like mango and I want to try this sauce.
I hope you love it!!
i love no nutrition value, when food is good who cares. try to ask a real italian mama how many calories has a spaghetti bowl, she will tell you that she doesn’t use calories in her kitchen, must be something very Australian, and she doesn’t know it 🙂
Hi Nagi, just wanted to ask if it was possible to freeze the sauce? Look forward to hearing from you.
Sounds delicious. Want to to try it using an air fryer. What do you think? I could use some oil. Thanx
This looks tasty and I will try the shrimp so much — my husband loves coconut shrimp! Meanwhile, we’re having a broth-based fondue with shrimp and lobster. I’m thinking about using your mango sauce as one of the dips. Any thoughts on that?
Oooh yes to that! What an amazing sounding fondue! N x
Can you bake this instead of deep frying
Hi Glenn! I’m afraid that won’t produce the same result – it won’t be golden and crunchy. sorry to disappoint! N xx
Hi Nagi,
Mangoes are not in season now so could you use canned or frozen mangoes for this receipe
YES!! I do that all through winter 🙂
Hi Nagi. Have 2 questions about your coconut shrimp recipe. Can the mango sauce be made ahead and refrigerated for a day or two? Also, since I’m not much of a cook (but finally starting to experiment in the kitchen), I don’t know if sweetned or unsweetened coconut is the better choice. Thanks for your help! Can’t wait to try so many of your recipes!!
Hi Linda! yes the sauce can be made ahead and unsweetened coconut is best. 🙂 Hope you enjoy it! N x
I love prawns & the lovely mango sauce.
Will definetly try this gorgeous recipes.
Thanks Kim! Hope you do try it, it’s SO YUM!
Do you use green prawns as you are cooking it?
Can’t wait to try it.
Thanks for the recipe.
That looks incredibly yummy! Thank you for sharing your recipe 🙂
No worries! Hope you try it!! 🙂