Staple recipes needed for a luxury item.. (Scampi)

These beasties, In the UK I always had them breaded and deepfried as scampi, or served whole in fancy restaurants. But I now find that I have an endless supply of the things and I need to figure out how to serve them without deep-frying them or poncing about with one on a plate with a dribble of sauce. The ones I get are headless but still shelled, we've bbqed them with dipping sauce and that was lovely, but how can I use these things in normal everyday meals?

You could just steam a whole pot of them with wine and garlic.

I think they'd be good in a tomatoey stew.

Have you ever tried gumbo?

I would suggest adapting a paella recipe. Here`s a simple one :bbc good food.It`s an easy one pot meal.

He doesn't like wine otherwise the mussel treatment sounds lovely, he also won't eat them in their shells

No never tried gumbo Do you have any recipes that might work with fish? I'm just finding chicken and sausage combinations with okra or filé powder? Neither of which are available here.

We like paella I always use chicken but yes they could well work in it, it was actually one I discounted as you always just see one perched on top as a decoration, but no reason why they couldn't be the "meat"

The only real disadvantage with them is they have a very mild taste, I did a orange and honey sauce for them tonight and they got lost in it.

Do you have sassafras trees there? The dried & crushed leaves are file'.  Okra & file' are used more for thickening gumbo than for their taste. So it could still be tasty almost gumbo.

They are good stuffed inside a jalapeno pepper with some cheese then wrapped in bacon. Cooked over an open fire or in the oven.

Also good with pasta.

The Japanese roll the tentacles in batter to form a patty. Then deep fry the patty. It's like eating toothpicks. That's the only way I've ever tried them that wasn't good.

More important: How do you have an endless supply of them, and how do I get some???

Michael Cox wrote:More important: How do you have an endless supply of them, and how do I get some???

Mike, asking the real questions. I was about to do the same!

As for recipes, I think I'd be tempted to batter some a-la the British pub. You could spray/brush them with oil and then bake them rather than deep-frying. I've got an Air Fryer that is very good for making breaded tofu in this manner.

I would also try using them like prawns and curry them or make Thai-inspired dishes.

I have been making gumbo almost my whole life. At least since we made a trip to New Orleans and I fell in love with the food.

I never use file' or okra.  File' is for thickening it.

Probably okra is just because ...

To me the important ingredients are the mirepoix:

https://permies.com/t/97217/kitchen/Mirepoix-Holy-Trinity

And the roux:

https://permies.com/t/95898/kitchen/Traditional-Roux

To me, Cajun Food is like using up a bunch of leftovers.  Add or subtract whichever ingredients are available. Green bell pepper is an ingredient that I really like when I have it.

I am not a fan of shrimp so I never use it in my cooking. I like gumbo that has sausage because sausage gives the gumbo just the right added touch.

I do like Etouffee when dining out.

Skandi Rogers wrote: But I now find that I have an endless supply of the things

When you say scampi do you mean the real thing (Nephrops norvegicus) or is it just some other shrimp/prawn?

Because as you already mentioned, the real scampi are served hole at a really high price, so i wonder how
you would get a lot of beheaded scampi for cheap/free?

That said...risotto is a good way to prepare them ;-)

Yes I mean the real thing, This particular lot were seconds, so ones with soft shells or which didn't peel well on the boat, the previous batch were not seconds so it's a bit of a mix. I wondered why it was impossible to buy decent fish round here and I complained about it, which reached the right ears and I found out why, you need to pay in beer... It fell of the back of the lorryboat gov.

They don't taste quite the same as prawns and are much softer once out of their armour,  and to be honest we don't eat to many prawns as they are to expensive!

I'm all about simplicity. My favorite way is to saute them in a bit of butter and crushed garlic, then toss them with some pasta, lemon juice, fresh grated parmesan, cracked black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Simple, light dinner that can be made in minutes. Sometimes we use spaghetti squash instead of pasta.

if you like a strong spicy pungent umami flavourant, try smoke drying them and process into Ga Shito  ,if not --  jar it up and head off into your next big town or city look for all the central african shops/cafes/food stores---and they will find all the customers you can handle ,for it

Shrimp salad (sandwiches)? Cooked and chopped, with minced onions and celery, mayonnaise, whatever spices suit you (S&P, curry, etc.) or other veg like celeriac, water chestnut, scallions...
Shrimp dip? google a recipe, it's cream cheese based.

Jambalaya is good, similar to gumbo, but doesn't have okra or file. It can be made with chicken, sausage and shrimp or any combination thereof.

Pickled shrimp is lovely, we eat them on tostadas, but bread would work fine.

Tossed in soup is nice as well. They go particularly well with winter squash soups.

Tonight's dinner was corn & shrimp soup. Remembered this thread so dug up a couple of videos for you. Some folks add a little potato &/or cheese to their corn soup. The second video is for crawfish but is also excellent with shrimp instead of crawfish. Enjoy.



https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjGhjTxzM8EmQdQiiex9SCQ

I am envious of your abundance of scampi.

I would cook them in Asian dishes, any recipe that calls for prawns, substitute your scampi.

Sweet and sour Cantonese style, fried rice, stir fried with vegetables, Thai curries in coconut milk, Indian curries - the Goan style spicy, hot sour with tamarind, Jamaican.

You already have Spain, Italy and the uk covered, a delicious way to sample ethnic cuisine from the comfort of your home.  

I will search through my food photos and see what I can find where scampi could be substituted and post here.

From the movie Forrest Gump.  His friend Bubba talked for a minute or so about how use shrimp.

"Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sauté it. There's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it."

That's all I got to say about that.

Since I have never had Scampi, Nephrops norvegicus, or even lobster it seems to me that to cook it like shrimp would be the wrong application.  I am sure it works as a substitute for shrimp.

From what I have read the taste is like a lobster more than a shrimp. Maybe more like a crab than shrimp.

I can only imagine cooking it with white wine, lemon juice, and butter which sounds so good.

maybe not the most popular way to use/process scampi, but one way to use them could be to make  a "shrimp paste", one of the most common hidden ingredients in Thai food, and is added in veggies, meat dishes, noodle dishes. Keeps up to 2 month refrigerated.

Thanks for all the ideas folks, Do any of you have a recipe for a crawfish boil that is actually from scratch and doesn't use any spice mixes? Scampi are the crayfish of the sea so it should work.

Anne Miller wrote:
I can only imagine cooking it with white wine, lemon juice, and butter which sounds so good.

That's what we had tonight with bread, lovely but hardly a balanced meal! They taste like a sweet lobster tail with softer flesh than a prawn a bit less fishy than crab.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/crawfish-boil-recipe-1947069

This shows the individual spices typically used.

If the shrimp you have are complete -- heads on and innards complete, try this:

Defrost one pack and see what you have.  Assume the other packs are the same. Save the heads, innards, and shells to make fish stock, or shrimp stock if you have enough. Clean the shrimp from one pack and put the heads, shells, and innards back in the freezer until all the other packs are used up, then make the stock.

If you have a tomato-based sauce, add the shrimp to it for a nice shrimp-based pasta sauce. You can cut the shrimp into bite-sized pieces if you want.  
Or simply boil some salted water and simmer the shrimp in it until they are white and firm. Drain, cool, and serve with cocktail sauce.
Make a cheesy-tomatoey sauce and serve for dinner with a veg or a salad or both.
Remove the tails from the rest of the body (reserving it for stock), and get three plates one with flour, then egg, and then breadcrumbs. Coat the shrimp once in each plate and fry for fried shrimp.
More shrimp recipes:
https://www.google.com/search?q=shrimp+recipes&rlz=1C1FNES_enJP1027JP1027&oq=shrimp+recipes&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i65l3.3537j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Keep them frozen until you have a use for them.

Cocktail (Horseradish) Sauce
Makes: About 1 cup (240 mL)  
Ingredients
● 1 cup (240 ml) ketchup
● 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
● 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
● ¼ teaspoon sugar
● 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish (or grind the horseradish from your garden and add vinegar)
In a small mixing bowl, mix all of the ingredients together with a spoon. Cover and chill overnight.

If the shrimp you have are complete -- heads on and innards complete, try this:

Defrost one pack and see what you have.  Assume the other packs are the same. Save the heads, innards, and shells to make fish stock, or shrimp stock if you have enough. Clean the shrimp from one pack and put the heads, shells, and innards back in the freezer until all the other packs are used up, then make the stock.

If you have a tomato-based sauce, add the shrimp to it for a nice shrimp-based pasta sauce. You can cut the shrimp into bite-sized pieces if you want.  
Or simply boil some salted water and simmer the shrimp in it until they are white and firm. Drain, cool, and serve with cocktail sauce.
Make a cheesy-tomatoey sauce and serve for dinner with a veg or a salad or both.
Remove the tails from the rest of the body (reserving it for stock), and get three plates one with flour, then egg, and then breadcrumbs. Coat the shrimp once in each plate and fry for fried shrimp.
More shrimp recipes:
https://www.google.com/search?q=shrimp+recipes&rlz=1C1FNES_enJP1027JP1027&oq=shrimp+recipes&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i65l3.3537j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Cocktail (Horseradish) Sauce
Makes: About 1 cup (240 mL)  
Ingredients
● 1 cup (240 ml) ketchup
● 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
● 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
● ¼ teaspoon sugar
● 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish (or grind the horseradish from your garden and add vinegar)
In a small mixing bowl, mix all of the ingredients together with a spoon. Cover and chill overnight.