Mushroom Seafood Cocktail

A combination of King Oyster Mushrooms and dried sea vegetables make this a surprisingly fishy dish. Cue the 80s with this retro, slightly revamped, seafood cocktail.
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Recipe by Nadia Fragnito
SERVES 4 small cocktails | 30 minutes
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Mushroom Calamari
4 King Oyster Mushrooms
¼ cup vegan fish sauce
1 tablespoon dried wakame flakes (or any dried sea vegetable)
1 clove garlic, crushed
juice of ½ lemon
¼ cup water
Seafood cocktail sauce
¾ cup full fat soy milk
1 cup of light flavoured oil, like rice bran
juice ¼ lemon
½ teaspoon salt
cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons of tomato sauce
few drops tabasco sauce (optional)
To serve: chopped fresh parsley, lettuce and lemon wedges
Prepare the calamari
Slice the mushrooms into rounds. Take a small apple corer, cannoli tube or a round object to cut ‘holes’ in these mushroom rounds. You want to create ring shapes.
Prepare the marinade. Into a bowl, mix the wakame flakes, garlic, lemon, fish sauce and water. Toss the mushrooms in the marinade and coat thoroughly. Set aside to marinate at least 10 minutes.
Seafood sauce
Pour the milk into a blender. Add the salt and black pepper.
With the blender running on low, slowly pour in the oil.
Add the lemon juice. This will emulsify and thicken into a creamy consistency. Finally, blend through the tomato sauce and tabasco if using.
Assembly
Drain the mushroom calamari from the marinade.
Serve on a bed of lettuce and garnish with fresh parsley and lemon wedges. Drizzle over seafood cocktail sauce.