Vegan Scallops

So here I am, making a weekly dinner for my two favorite humans.
But we want to do something to really pull off a surprise. You see, one is vegan (hence all the vegan recipes you see here), but she has been missing seafood. So... I did some reading on difference vegan seafoods. Having worked in the seafood industry for almost 10 years, I have some experience with it.

Most of the "Vegan Scallop" recipes were the same, or at least very close to one another. But they were all missing something. Something that seemed plainly obvious to me, the omnivore with the history. Also, most of them used miso, which is on my no-use list for these meals.

Chef Tom's Vegan Scallops:

Ingredients:

• 32oz Hot Water
• 1 Sheet of Nori (seaweed)
• 1 teaspoon of Sea Salt
• 1 Tablespoon of Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic (or powder)
• 6-8 King Oyster Mushrooms

First, make the marinade of everything that isn't the mushrooms, and let it sit overnight. Some Nori will give the water a purple hue, that's ok.

About an hour ahead of time, trim the bottoms and heads off of the mushrooms, and then make 1" to 1 1/4" slices of the stems. You'll probably get 2-3 per mushroom. Throw them in the marinade and let them sit.

What I've noticed is that nobody puts sugar in their marinades. But real scallops have a sweetness to them that you're not getting without adding it. This, with the "ocean" flavor from the soaked Nori, give them the right taste, while the king oyster mushroom stems naturally have the right texture.

You need a skillet on fairly high heat. If you want a real New England scallop dinner taste, throw some butter in the pan (I use Miyoko's), and place them in until they brown. It takes me about 4 minutes a side, a little less without the butter, but they will purge some of the water which slows it down.

Then use them however you would any other scallops. I did it over pasta.

They're a little longer than tall sometimes, but if you can get some good fat stems, they look just fine.