Seaweed
as a cook's ingredient has come a long way in the two years that have passed
since I sent in a seaweed book proposal. Living on an Outer Hebridean Isle,
where in the words of my publisher, seaweed runs amok, means that it is not
surprising that I choose to experiment with sea vegetables over terrestrial
ones. At times, my home-grown earthy vegetables have a very good chance of
being blown out into the Atlantic by powerful gales and the produce on offer in
my local supermarket is, during bouts of inclement weather, often delayed on
ferryboats. Weather aside, the Hebridean infrastructure is fragile at its best
and does little to enhance the appearance of any mainland grown fresh product,
never mind consideration of its effect on nutrients.
This
weekend a brother in law and I fed seaweed to my elderly mother in law. The
food on offer by the nursing home had been declined and yet after a little
coaxing, my ma in law cleared her plates of food. Seaweed was the secret
ingredient in most of the courses.
Over the
years I've noticed that my mother in law added extra salt to any food that I
prepared. I gather that additional salt, coupled with an increased liking for
sugar is commonplace in the preferred taste of many older people. I’d like to
suggest that seaweed, which is lower in sodium than salt, might be a useful
'sprinkle' for Nursing Homes to consider. The barrier will of course be budget
because the seaweed sprinkles (now available in Marks and Spencer nationwide)
are expensive. Hopefully with the passing of time and future harvesting and
drying research, seaweed prices will lower, thus making it a more accessible
ingredient. So what you may ask, did my mother in law eat: homemade Jersey potato
and leek soup, seaweed bread, avocado and a rhubarb and sugar kelp custard tart
- I cook with seaweed as most folk use herbs and spices but also use seaweed as
a vegetable too.
Vraic
(from the Jersey French word for seaweed) is used in the manure in which Jersey
potatoes are grown and so adding seaweed to potato salads or as flavouring, is
to my mind, a very natural progression. I always add a good pinch of kelp
(kombu) to my stocks, in much the way that the Japanese use it in dashi. I have
a live seaweed sourdough starter but when time is short, I simply add a good
handful of dried laver (nori) or dulse to my traditional 'yeast' bread recipe.
My mother in law’s bread was flavoured with dried laver, which to my palate is
one of the milder species of seaweed. The avocado was unadulterated but when I
mash avocado in sandwiches, I usually mix in some dried laver or for extra
punch, pepper dulse or sea lettuce. Sugar kelp (kombu royale) as the name
suggests is sweet. I used it in the custard of the rhubarb tart. It is a freely
available (to coastal folk) replacement for vanilla. I also added a good pinch
of sugar kelp to the shortcrust pastry.
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| Seaweed Sourdough |
Seaweed in the Kitchen will be published by Prospect Books and includes recipes that
use seaweed as a vegetable in much the way that we cook with terrestrial
vegetables but there are plenty of ‘sprinkling’ ideas too. Mara Seaweed http://maraseaweed.com is on
sale in Marks and Spencer but there are other UK producers to consider: The Cornish Seaweed Company, Just Seaweed,
Ocean Harvest Jersey, Atlantic Kitchen, Seagreens and the Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company to name but six.
Dulse is
included in the list of Britain's forgotten food The Ark of Taste but carrageen,
another red seaweed is still eaten by the elderly and infirm on many Hebridean
Islands. We need to encourage the young to consider seaweed, albeit once a
poverty ingredient and then share the idea with their grandparents - ideally
before those in the know ask for carrageen.
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