Recipe: Coquilles from the former Red Snapper Seafood Restaurant (and meet Somporn Veeranarong)

This week, we’re bringing you a recipe for the coquilles found on the menu at the former Red Snapper Seafood Restaurant on Cheshire Bridge Road. We’re also introducing you to one of its owners, Somporn Veeranarong, an Atlanta restaurant scene icon and a proud grandmother who loves to bake and cook for her family.

You may have met Veeranarong at The Red Snapper, which she and her husband, Jimmy, owned from 1986 to 2019, before they sold it. Prior to her restaurant career, Veeranarong worked as a nurse on the IV team at DeKalb General Hospital (now Emory Decatur Hospital). Veeranarong credits her husband for her first cooking lessons, later attending the Institute of Culinary Education in New York.

At The Red Snapper, Veeranarong became known for her ginger snapper, the restaurant’s Southern-style coconut cake, and crabmeat coquilles, an appetizer combining creamed spinach and crabmeat in spring roll wrappers.

“Just about every table ordered coconut cake when they came in,” Veeranarong said.

Veeranarong recalls one couple who came into the restaurant six nights a week for many years. She made them special salads and desserts, and, of course, whatever dishes they wanted from the regular menu.

More recipes from the Rough Draft archives

At the tail-end of the last decade, Veeranarong became a grandmother to twin girls, Aina and Isra. Veeranarong said she was ready to leave working 10 to 12-hour shifts, six days a week at The Red Snapper and move on to the next phase of life. That included being a grandmother. These days, she’s known by family and friends as “Yaiyai,” which means “grandmother” in Thai.

While she’s no longer working in the restaurant industry, Veeranarong is still an avid cook. She makes her granddaughters’ lunches and has ventured deeper into baking and desserts. Veeranarong now makes a lighter, Thai-style version of The Red Snapper’s coconut cake, which contains less sugar, but uses more eggs to achieve a fluffier, chiffon-like texture. She calls it “diet cake.”

But, today, Veeranarong is providing Rough Draft readers with the recipe for her coquilles.

You can read an extended version of Sarra’s interview with Veeranarong on “Grandmas of Atlanta.” Rough Draft will publish one recipe a month from “Grandmas of Atlanta.” Know a grandmother with a stellar recipe to share? Send details to sarra@roughdraftatlanta.com.

Stay updated on Veeranarong’s cooking adventures via her daughter’s Instagram account, @mymom_madethis.

Coquilles Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup milk, plus 3/4 cup cream, or, 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp tabasco sauce
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• Pre-cooked shrimp or crab meat
• Neutral oil, such as avocado or canola, for frying
• One pack spring roll wrappers

Directions

Make the spinach

1. Squeeze excess liquid from the spinach and melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add flour, then cook one minute.
2. Add cream and milk (or half-and-half) and seasonings. Stir until smooth.
3. Add drained spinach to the mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.

Make the coquilles

1. Remove wonton wrapper from package and lie diagonally on a clean, flat surface.
2. Using a tablespoon, add two scoops creamed spinach mixture to the center, then add two pieces of shrimp or crab on top.
3. Wrap the coquille by folding in two side corners, and then the top and bottom.
4. Add crab meat or cooked shrimp on top of spinach (not mixed) and wrap.
5. Fry in oil between 325 degrees and 350 degrees Fahrenheit until golden brown, flipping to ensure both sides are fried sufficiently. Repeat until you’ve run out of ingredients.
6. Let cool, and serve immediately, preferably with honey mustard sauce.