Chef 'du jour' Luke Dale-Roberts is a recent convert to the distinctive taste of cooking with seaweed. Follow his footprints in the sand with these carefully constructed recipes.
Seaweed is a funny thing. I place it in a group of foods I call “foods for the advanced beginner”. Marmite is one of them.
When you first try it as a youngster, you may turn up your nose. But if your mom persists, “eeww” eventually becomes “mmm” and a life-long relationship is cemented.
Another foodstuff in the “acquired taste” category would be olives – and, for me, seaweed.
I regard myself as an adventurous eater but I clearly remember peeling off the nori from my maki roll the first time I had sushi and eating just the rice.
I couldn’t wrap my taste buds around that “rock pool” flavour I was getting. But for a chef to stay on top of the trends, there’s no shaking seaweed.
The raw movement has pushed seaweed into the mainstream and it’s cropping up more and more, not only on Asian tables but on French ones, too.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to have lunch at El Bulli in Spain and there was a definite Japanese slant to quite a few of the dishes – that “rock pool” flavour came through quite noticeably. This time, I loved it.
The seaweed-inspired recipes I am sharing with you use both seaweed that I gathered myself (do your research carefully or ask an expert to identify seaweed if you're uncertain, and make sure you have the necessary permits) and Japanese varieties I picked up at the Asian supermarket.
If you prefer, you could stick to the safety of the shops.
You’ll soon agree that what’s good enough for mermaids is delicious even for novice taste buds.
RECIPES USING SEAWEED