RESTAURANT QUALITY Shrimp Prawn Tacos!

These shrimp or prawn tacos are ridiculously delicious!! The shrimp or prawns are coated in a deliciously spicy Bang Bang Sauce and are so simple to make but taste like they came from your favourite restaurant! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

Bang Bang shrimp originated from Thailand and references the Sriracha and Thai sweet chilli sauces in the spicy mayonnaise based sauce. Bang Bang Shrimp is also one of the most popular dishes at Bonehead Grill, a chain of seafood restaurants across America where it is served as an appetiser. They serve it on a bed of lettuce leaves with spring onions on top. It was so absolutely delicious I wanted to make it again and again. And then it came to me that the best way to serve this would be in tacos and once I tried one of these prawn or shrimp taco I was floored at how delicious it was. I know it's not authentically Mexican serving Asian style shrimp like this but I promise it works.

Tips for Making Shrimp Tacos

1 - I like to use frozen, peeled prawns as it makes it much quicker to make these. Just defrost them in the fridge 24 hours prior and pat them dry.

2 - You can use cornflour or fine cornstarch, tapioca flour, plain all purpose flour or semolina flour. The difference is with the crunch you will get and whether you want it to be gluten free or not.

3 - You can fry these in peanut oil, grapeseed or canola oil. Just avoid using olive oil as it has such a strong flavour to it.

4 - Some recipes call for the prawns to be coated in buttermilk before dredging with the flour. I like the prawns coated in coconut cream because you get a wonderful coconut flavour to them that goes so well with the rest of the flavours.

5 - Bang Bang shrimp are deep fried. But if you don't like deep frying you can also oven bake them. It's not quite the same texture obviously but still very tasty.

6 - We loved these with small street size corn tortillas. These are best doubled up as they can split apart when eating. You can also use flour tortillas that are a bit more flexible. To heat both corn and flour tortillas heat a frypan on medium heat and dry fry them for 20-30 seconds on each side. Place in a clean tea towel to keep warm while you are cooking them all.

7 - I filled these tacos with coleslaw because I love mayonnaise but serving it on a bed of shredded lettuce, chopped tomato and sliced onion is also very tasty too.

8 - This bang bang shrimp is also delicious served with rice if that is more your style.

I made these so many times over the last few weeks, not to perfect the recipe but because they were so delicious I wanted to eat them every day. I had no complaints from Mr NQN and although I loathe frying in oil I will do it because the result is absolutely worth it. And now it isn't such a drama frying because I finally have my rangehood installed! While most of my kitchen was finished months ago, the rangehood has proved elusive. First I had to wait a while for delivery as they are all apparently made to order and then I found that they delivered the wrong one! So it was another month and a half wait for the replacement.

The other day Peter installed it and it works really well. It sucks up all of the smells but also removes the heat from the cooktop which is an added bonus in summer. It is also very powerful and quiet. However that isn't it for my rangehood. I wanted a rangehood with style that would suit the rest of the kitchen. I had seen some American rangehoods that were gorgeous with brass detailing on them but couldn't find anything like that in Australia. I did find some Australian metal fabricators that could perhaps do it but they both gave me the runaround for months. I guess my rangehood was a relatively small job compared to what they are used to working on.

Then Peter stepped up with a solution which he is in the middle of bringing to life as I type this. I'll show you photos once it is done but in the meantime please enjoy these prawn/shrimp tacos instead! They're much less stressful to bring to life ;)

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried to do something a bit different and it has been difficult? Was it worth it? And do you like prawn or shrimp tacos?

Bang Bang Prawn Shrimp Tacos

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4 (2 tacos each)

• Oil for deep frying

• 24 large king prawns, peeled (peeled weight between 350-400g/12-14ozs) frozen ones that have been peeled are fine

• 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs coconut cream or buttermilk
• 3/4 cup/115g/4ozs tapioca, cornflour/fine cornstarch or plain all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white or black pepper

For Bang Bang Sauce

• 1/2 cup/120g/4ozs mayonnaise
• 50g/1.7ozs Sriracha chilli sauce (or to taste)
• 30g/1oz Thai sweet chilli sauce

For Tacos

• 16 small corn tortillas (street tortilla size) or flour if you prefer
• 1 cup coleslaw
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• Coriander
• Corn cobs and lime wedges to serve

Step 1 - Heat an inch of oil in a large, heavy pot. While it is heating up, place the coconut cream or buttermilk in a small bowl. Then whisk the flour, baking powder, chilli powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper together in another small bowl. Dredge the prawns in the cream/milk and then the flour. I keep them in the bowl for a minute, then when they look a bit translucent, dredge them through the flour again to get a thicker batter shell for extra crunchiness. When the oil reaches 180C/350F (test using a wooden chopstick, if small bubbles form around the chopstick then the oil is ready) fry for 2 minutes in small batches and place on a paper towel lined plate.

Step 2 - Mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside. Heat up the tortillas in a dry frypan until warm and then place them double layered on a plate. Fill with coleslaw or salad. Then mix the prawns gently in the bang bang sauce and then place three prawns in each tortilla on top of the coleslaw. Top with sesame seeds and coriander. Serve immediately with corn and wedges of lime.