Scampi falsi aglio e olio
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:04 am
I’ve got quite a discussion going on Facebook about a wacky ingredient I’ve been fooling with today, Sophie’s Kitchen brand vegan “prawns,” a plant-based item made of konjaku (Japanese elephant yam root) and edible seaweed flavors in a processed meatless food that looks a lot like, well, prawns. http://sophieskitchen.net/html/products/prawans.html
Facebook discussion: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4855871347149
I decided to try them, mostly out of curiosity to see whether a “prawn” made from non-sentient vegetable stuff could fill a shrimp-shaped space in the heart and tummy of a gastronome who likes seafood but has chosen, for ethical or environmental or health or whatever reasons not to eat animals. So I set up a mise en place for some garlicky, olive-oily scampi, which I decided to call scampi falsi aglio e olio, loosely translated “fake shrimp with garlic and oil.”
Facebook discussion: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4855984989990
The finished dish was pretty good. No, the scampi falsi didn’t taste like shrimp, but their texture was reasonably close and their flavor was faintly seafoody and not at all unpleasant. In the context of the garlic, oil and lemon and pasta and a nice Portuguese Douro white, it wasn’t a bad dinner at all.
Facebook discussion: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4856472482177
I’ve linked to the Facebook discussions, which got pretty interesting and thoroughly civil. I’d be glad to engage in a similar discussion here, asking only, as I did over there, “no hatin’, please.”
Facebook discussion: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4855871347149
I decided to try them, mostly out of curiosity to see whether a “prawn” made from non-sentient vegetable stuff could fill a shrimp-shaped space in the heart and tummy of a gastronome who likes seafood but has chosen, for ethical or environmental or health or whatever reasons not to eat animals. So I set up a mise en place for some garlicky, olive-oily scampi, which I decided to call scampi falsi aglio e olio, loosely translated “fake shrimp with garlic and oil.”
Facebook discussion: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4855984989990
The finished dish was pretty good. No, the scampi falsi didn’t taste like shrimp, but their texture was reasonably close and their flavor was faintly seafoody and not at all unpleasant. In the context of the garlic, oil and lemon and pasta and a nice Portuguese Douro white, it wasn’t a bad dinner at all.
Facebook discussion: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4856472482177
I’ve linked to the Facebook discussions, which got pretty interesting and thoroughly civil. I’d be glad to engage in a similar discussion here, asking only, as I did over there, “no hatin’, please.”