I know I already had a nameko thread. Namekos boiled with Old Bay seasoning. Pretty much just playing with a new ingredient.
Well, I thought I’d use the namekos as a sort of noodle base for shrimp scampi in a box. This time I prepped the mushrooms by cutting off the connective tissue at the bottoms of the clumps to give me individual mushrooms. I boiled a small amount of water, tossed the namekos in and doused with Old Bay. I poured a scotch on the rocks at this point- Glenfiddich if you care or think you can pair a drink with all of this. Anyway, I let the mushrooms simmer for the 15 minutes it takes to bake the shrimp scampi.
Even though I had not used much water, it seemed like it would turn out too runny in the end, and I added a couple spoonfuls of flour to the namekos. Originally I had planned to drain them, but then wanted to hang on to all that yummy mushroom juice. I wound up combining the ingredients in a bowl. The mushrooms couldn’t absorb all that butter like noodles would, so I had way too much liquid, too much free-floating butter. I might use croutons next time, or maybe switch to nameko shrimp alfredo. It was at least definitely worth doing.
I’m not sure what I’ll do next with namekos. That’s kind of the point of writing about it- maybe somebody on the dope has a good suggestion.