King mushrooms stuffed with shrimp and scallops

This experiment was only partly successful. That happens some days. It does not dissuade me, however, from continuing my quest for interesting and innovative things to do in the kitchen.

I think there is the possibility of making this dish and having it turn out to be quite lovely. Probably by cooking the mushrooms by themselves and serving them with the stuffing along side.

The picture below doesn’t give you a very good idea of the size of these puppies. The ones I buy at my favorite Chinese supermarket are 6-7” long and about 2” in diameter. They are very dense in texture, much more so than portobellos. The bottom inch or two of the stem end should be cut off and discarded. It is tough. The top is the most tender portion, which leads me to wonder why the tops are trimmed when I buy them. When I say trimmed I don’t mean the tops are removed. They are shaved straight up the side, leaving you with a cylinder that looks, frankly, like a rather large, uncircumsized male organ.





The idea was simple. Slice the shrooms in half lengthwise. Excavate a deep “V” slit in each half. Stuff it. Tie it together. Saute or roast.

The stuffing I created was very good. It was a mix of scallops, shrimp, scallion, oyster sauce and sriracha. It also included chopped up mushroom from what was hollowed out of each mushroom which I sautéed and let cool before combining it with the seafood mix. I made so much of it that tonight we will have seafood “burgers”.

The problem is a simple one: king mushrooms are very dense in texture. I don’t know if there is a way to tenderize them when they are whole. Chopped up or sliced thin they are quite lovely.

Grilling a Portobello cap and then placing it under the broiler with the stuffing on it probably would be good. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The good news? I think we will have two very tasty shrimp/scallop burgers tonight.