Shrimp Tacos with Coconut Pico de Gallo

This month's Royal Foodie Joust
featured these three ingredients
1. From the sea - fish, seaweed, etc...
2. Coconut
2. lime or lemon

At first we thought a curry or perhaps a fish steamed in a banana leaf. My dad even suggested adding a MN flair & doing something with lutefisk, we quickly passed on that suggestion! (For those of you who don't know lutefisk, its a scandinavian dish where whitefish is processed with lye to preserve it...imagine a fish jello.) We decided to use a recipe for Shrimp Tacos that Matt had come up with a couple years ago that we both loved so much. The coconut adds a nice additional crunch & flavor to the fresh pico de gallo & the addition of lime vodka really kicks up the tangy lime flavor. This dish was a little bit of sunshine during a snowy Minnesota spring.


Coconut Pico de Gallo:

1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 med tomato, seeded & chopped
1/8 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup shredded raw coconut (unsweetened)
juice of 1/2 lime
kosher salt
pepper

Mix everything together & let sit for at least an hour, stirring occasionally, to allow the flavors to blend.

Shrimp:

1 T olive oil
3/4 lb uncooked, peeled shrimp
1 t sweet paprika
1 t ground cumin
1/8 t cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1 clove garlic, minced
juice of 1/2 lime
2 T lime flavored vodka

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick skillet over med-high heat. Mix the paprika, cumin and cayenne together. Coat the shrimp with the spice mixture. Add the garlic and the shrimp to the pan. Squeeze the lime over the shrimp. Add the vodka (be careful, it might flame). Cook until the shrimp is pink & the sauce has reduced.

Serve on tortillas with sour cream, lettuce and the coconut pico de gallo.

Makes 4 tacos.

Thanks Leftover Queen for hosting these Jousts, they are so much fun!