Langoustine substitute

Substitutes for Langoustine with ratios

1. 2Lobster tail, cut into medallions

   Different texture

   Use the same amount by weight

   Cold-water lobster tail meat sliced crosswise into thick rounds.

   What changes

   Best for

   pasta and risotto, butter-poaching, bisque, special-occasion dishes, salads

   The nearest flavour on the market, because langoustine is a small clawed lobster and tastes like one. Lobster brings the same clean sweetness and the same faint mineral finish. Two real differences: the flesh is firmer and denser, so it gives a more substantial chew rather than langoustine's soft tenderness, and it costs at least as much, so this is a lateral move rather than a saving. Slice the tail into rounds about two centimetres thick so each piece is roughly langoustine-sized, poach it gently in butter, and stop cooking as soon as it turns opaque.

2. 3Langostino tails (frozen)

   Close match

   Use the same amount by weight

   Small precooked, peeled tails of a squat lobster, sold frozen in bags despite the confusingly similar name.

   What changes

   Best for

   pasta, risotto, bisque and soup, seafood rolls, salads, gratins

   Different animal, similar result, and a fraction of the price. Langostino tails are close to the right size, they are already shelled, and the texture is soft and tender in much the way langoustine is. The flavour is milder and a bit sweeter, less complex, and the meat is a little looser and can shred if you stir it hard. The big practical difference is that they come cooked, so they cannot be seared or grilled and must simply be warmed through in the last minute off the heat. They also hold water, so drain them properly before they go anywhere near a sauce.

3. 4Crawfish or crayfish tails

   Different taste

   Use the same amount by weight

   Small cooked freshwater shellfish tails, sold frozen in bags.

   What changes

   Best for

   pasta and cream sauces, bisque, salads and cocktails, gratins, vol-au-vents

   A sensible swap when the langoustines were destined for a sauce rather than a plate. Crawfish tails are small, soft and sweet, and they melt into a cream or tomato sauce very agreeably. They are noticeably smaller than a langoustine tail, so the dish loses its centrepiece pieces, and being freshwater they carry a slightly earthy, mineral note in place of langoustine's clean sea sweetness. They are precooked, so add them at the end. If the bag includes the orange fat, use it, as it enriches the sauce.

4. 5Spot prawns, red shrimp or carabineros

   Close match

   Use the same amount by weight

   Premium sweet cold-water or deep-water prawns, usually sold head-on and often frozen at sea.

   What changes

   Best for

   grilling, raw or barely cooked preparations, pasta, risotto, showpiece plates

   If your fishmonger has these, this is the swap that flatters the dish most. They share langoustine's soft, sweet, slightly creamy flesh, and the heads are full of intense orange fat that makes a superb sauce or stock. Differences are mostly of degree: red shrimp and carabineros are richer and more emphatically flavoured than a langoustine, almost jammy, and the texture is softer still, so they overcook in seconds and can turn mealy. Cook them barely, thirty to sixty seconds a side over high heat, and always keep the heads.

5. 6Monkfish cheeks or cubed monkfish tail

   Different taste

   Use the same amount by weight

   Dense, springy white fish cut into pieces the size of a langoustine tail.

   What changes

   Best for

   skewers and grilling, curries and stews, pasta, shellfish allergies

   The choice when shellfish is not an option, or when nothing decent is in the case. Monkfish has an unusually firm, springy texture that genuinely resembles shellfish, holds its shape in a sauce and takes garlic butter well, which is why it is sometimes called poor man's lobster. What it does not have is any real shellfish flavour, so the dish loses the sweet marine character that made it a langoustine dish. Cook it in a good fish stock, add a squeeze of lemon and plenty of butter, and accept that it is a related dish rather than the same one.