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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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.❤️
