Air-Fryer Coconut Shrimp with Apricot Sauce

Coconut shrimp lives at the intersection of beach restaurant menus and freezer-aisle appetizers, and as a result, most people have only ever had a bad version. The bad version is mealy on the inside, with a coconut crust that tastes like nothing, served with a syrupy orange dipping sauce that's mostly sugar. The good version — which is honestly not hard to make at home — is something else entirely: plump shrimp with a snappy bite, surrounded by a crust of toasted coconut that's both sweet and savoury, dipped in something with actual personality.

The trick is the coconut. Sweetened shredded coconut (not unsweetened flake) is what you want — it browns into proper colour, gives the crust the right balance of sweet and toasty. Mixed half-and-half with panko, it gets you both colour and crunch without going so sweet it tips over into dessert.

The apricot sauce is the dipping companion that doesn't try too hard. Apricot preserves, a spoonful of dijon, a splash of rice vinegar, a teaspoon of chilli paste for heat. Mix in a small bowl, no cooking. The acid and the chilli cut through the richness of the fried coconut crust; you don't want a sauce that adds more sweetness.

The photo shows it set up for sharing: a basket-lined dish piled with bronze-coloured coconut shrimp, a small teal ramekin of apricot sauce nestled in the middle. Eat with your hands. Make double; they go fast.