Children get told that they can be whatever they want to be, if they work hard enough. Well, the same principle applies to King Oyster Mushrooms that always dreamt of becoming scallops. These mushrooms are perfect for imitating their texture, and with the right preparation and technique, you can even give them a fishy and rich flavour.
Ingredients
For the Scallops
- King Oyster Mushrooms: Main star of the show
- Dried seaweed and vegan dashi powder: To provide strong fish flavours (sub soy sauce)
- Miso Paste: for additional richness
- Oil: for searing
- Parsley: Garnish
For the Polenta
- Polenta: Obviously
- Vegan Butter: for creaminess and richness
- Nutritional yeast: for cheesy and nutty flavour (sub vegan parmesan)
- Vegan cooking cream: optional for smoothness
How to make Scallops
Boiling the mushrooms
In the first step, cut your mushrooms stems to have a scallop-like shape and scorch one side vertically and horizontally. Reserve the mushroom heads for another dish.
The next step will be controversial. Set-up a broth using the seaweed and vegan dashi powder and boil the mushroom scallops. I know that most people will tell you that this is a sin, but there are actually good reasons for doing that (Osmosis, I believe):
- Similar to boiling tofu, it will actually draw moisture out of the mushrooms
- Because we boil them in a stock, the mushroom will soak up its fishy, ocean-like flavours.
- We can use the left-over stock to cook the polenta, which helps improve its flavour.
After taking out the mushrooms, make sure to pat-dry them, which helps with the next step.
Searing the mushrooms
- Sear them in a pan, with some cooking oil, until the scorn side is slightly caramelized. You can press them down with another pan to speed up the process.
- Flip, and sear the other side a little bit less.
- Finally, turn off the heat, add miso paste with a bit of water and let it steam for a few minutes.
Cooking Polenta
- If necessary, add more water to the stock to reach 3-4x the amount of polenta (see package instruction). Bring to a boil and slowly pour in the polenta while constantly whisking, which prevents the polenta from clumping.
- Turn off the heat and let it steam, stirring occasionally, until it reaches a mashed potato-like consistency. Add vegan butter, nutritional yeast and optionally some vegan cooking cream, before giving it a final mix and letting it rest for a few more minutes.
Serving
Scoop the polenta onto a plate and add the scallops on top.
Sprinkle with fresh parsley and squeeze some fresh lemon juice. Pour any remaining “miso sauce” from the pan over the dish.
The Recipe
Mushroom Scallops on Creamy Polenta
Zutaten
Method
- To a pot, add vegetable stock, dried seaweed and dashi powder. Bring to light simmer.
- In the meantime, cut the heads off the mushrooms and reserve for another dish. Cut the stems into scallop-like shapes and scorch one side horizontally and vertically.
- Add the stems to the pot and boil for 10-15 minutes. Remove and pat-dry them with a paper-towel. Also remove the seaweed sheet.
- Add enough water to the left-over stock to have enough liquid to cook the polenta (see package instructions). Bring the pot to a simmer and slowly pour in the polenta, while constantly whisking. Continue whisking for another minute, turn off the heat and let it rest with a lid on until it reaches a mashed-potato-like consistency.
- In the meantime, heat up a pan with cooking oil, and place in the mushrooms with the scorched side on the bottom. Lightly season with salt and black pepper and sear them until they are caramelized (6-8 minutes). Flip and repeat for 4-5 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to low, add miso paste with 100ml of water and mix until the paste is dissolved. Put on a lid and let them steam for 3-4 minutes.
- Add vegan butter, nutritional yeast and cooking cream to polenta, stir and let it rest until serving.
- Add polenta to a plate, place the mushrooms on top and sprinkle fresh parsley. Finally, squeeze some lemon juice and pour any remaining "miso sauce" from the pan onto the plate.
Notizen
- If not available, use soy sauce.
- you can also use vegan parmesan.
