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| From left to right: Laver, Sea Lettuce and Dulse |
Stir Up Sunday fell on a day when I was on
the mainland in my Angus kitchen. As usual I’d left most of the pudding bowls
across on the Isle, so in a waste not want not fashion, I packed the excess pudding
mix into a container. It travelled with me over the sea to The Uists via Skye (in
the opposite route to Flora Macdonald and Bonnie Prince Charlie). On reaching
my kitchen on South Uist, I added a little more finely ground Ascophyllum nodosum or Knotted wrack for
good measure and steamed the pudding for a couple of hours. Ascophyllum nodosum rolls of my tongue
nowadays, in a Harry Potter kind of way. I'm indebted to my kids and J. K.
Rowling for that stroke of Latin Confidence. That said however the botanical
names of seaweed may be subject to change. Seaweed is like this - we have much
to learn. Dried and sprinkled seaweed is however, an excellent Christmas spice
One thing I have in abundance in my Island
kitchen is dried seaweed. I probably chose an olive brown seaweed jar (Ascophyllum nodosum) in a Christmassy, warm
spice frame of mind. Most seaweeds mellow when cooked. The knotted wrack which
was harvested on the neighbouring Isle of Lewis, is very finely ground and so
texture possibly influenced my choice too - Doctor Seaweed kindly sent me a
sample pack to trial in my Christmas recipes.
One of my most colourful recipes in Seaweed in the Kitchen lends itself to Christmas. This ruby red and flecked emerald
green dessert is much much lighter than the traditional steamed pud or mince
pie and can be made in advance. It’s refreshing and has the merest hint of the
sea – adding seaweed to ice-cream or sorbet softens the weed’s flavour. Seaweed
and ice-cream is of course a well tested partnership - carrageen is used as a stabiliser in
commercial ice-creams. I chose sea
lettuce for its emerald sparkle but any of the Ulva spp. will sprinkle and sparkle green. The Ulva spp. can bully but when baked or churned in an ice-cream
machine the flavour is really very hard to place. On the Outer Hebridean Isle,
where buying fresh pomegranates or juice can be tricky, I often substitute
frozen raspberry juice. Cranberry juice works in this sorbet too. If you want
to ring the seaweed flavour changes and like the colour red, use finely ground
dulse which is available from Mara Seaweed or Atlantic Kitchen if you can’t
pick your own.
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| Jewelled Sorbet |
Tablespoon dried ground sea lettuce
200g caster sugar
125ml water
600ml pomegranate juice
100g pomegranate seeds (optional)
Put the sea lettuce, caster sugar and water
in a pan over a low heat and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Boil briefly
until you have thick syrup. Cool completely.
Add the pomegranate juice to the cooled sea
lettuce sugar syrup and mix well. Pour into an ice-cream machine* and churn
until frozen.
