What to use instead of shrimp
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
Advertisement
Fast-cooking sweet shellfish in a hot pan or broth
Shrimp muscle is short-fibred with almost no connective tissue, so it goes from raw to done in about two minutes; the sweetness peaks the moment the flesh turns opaque and fades a minute later.
Bay or small sea scallopsRan out
1:1 by weight, same 2 minutes in the pan
Sweeter and softer. No snap, so a stir fry loses its bite and the pieces want to fall apart when you toss them.
Lump crab meatRan out
1:1 by weight, folded in off the heat
Shreds instead of holding a curl, so it disappears into rice or pasta rather than sitting on top of it.
Firm white fish (monkfish, halibut, cod loin) in 1-inch cubesRan out
1:1 by weight, 3 to 4 minutes, turned once
Flakes apart if you stir it, so add it whole and leave it alone. Milder and it soaks up sauce instead of resisting it.
King oyster mushroom, cut in 1-inch rounds and cross-hatchedPlant-based
8 oz mushroom per 8 oz shrimp, plus 1/4 tsp fine salt
Genuinely chewy and it takes a hard sear, but there is no brine at all behind it, so the dish tastes flat until you salt it up.
What doesn't work: Pre-cooked frozen cocktail shrimp in anything that gets cooked again. The protein is already fully set, so a second cooking wrings water out of the muscle and leaves a rubbery ring with no sweetness left in it.
Concentrated briny savouriness (dried shrimp, shrimp in a stock or paste)
Dried shrimp has been salted and dehydrated until its glutamates are concentrated. It is a seasoning that happens to be an animal, doing the same work anchovy does in an Italian sauce.
Oil-packed anchovy fillet, mashed into the hot oilRan out
1 fillet per 1 tbsp dried shrimp
Fishier and saltier up front, less sweet. It melts completely, so you lose the little chewy specks.
Fish sauce, added with the liquidRan out
2 tsp per 1 tbsp dried shrimp
All of the savour, none of the texture, and it carries salt with it, so pull back elsewhere.
Shrimp paste (belacan, bagoong), toasted firstRan out
1/2 tsp toasted paste per 1 tbsp dried shrimp
Far more pungent, and untoasted it tastes raw and soapy. Toast it in a dry pan until it smells nutty.
Dried shiitake, soaked and minced, plus saltPlant-based
3 tbsp minced soaked shiitake + 1/4 tsp salt per 1 tbsp dried shrimp
Woody and earthy rather than briny. It carries a stir-fry base well and falls short in a Thai salad where the shrimp is the point.
What doesn't work: Fresh shrimp in place of dried. Fresh is about 75 percent water and mild; one tablespoon of dried carries the savour of a handful of fresh ones, so the sauce comes out watery and flat.
The shells are the free half of the ingredient. Simmered 15 minutes with a smashed garlic clove they make a stock better than anything on this page.