Home
Ingredients
|
|
|
Brown Algae
The order Laminariales (kelps) (A2) includes our
most familiar seaweeds, particularly the giant kelp that litters our West
Coast beaches after a storm. Despite their appearance and their chlorophyll,
these seaweeds are not plants.
|
Kelp - Japanese - [Kombu, Konbu (Japan),
dashima (Korea), haidai (China), Laminaria japonica (and several
other L. species)]
This is the edible kelp grown along the coasts of Japan, Korea
and China. Its long wide fronds are dried and packaged for use
particularly to make soup stock but also for use as wrappers for various
prepared foods. Almost all this kelp used for food is cultivated rather
than gathered wild which explains why there are so few crunchy critters
growing on it.
This kelp is normally sold as flat dried sheets cut from the fronds but
is also sold as narrow strips, salted and bagged in the refrigerated
section. In Japan it is also pickled and served cut into strips and served
as a snack to accompany green tea. The photo shows a piece of a frond as
dried, and a shorter piece cut from the end after soaking.
Kelp - Giant - [Macrocystis
pyrifera]
Along the temperate western coasts of North and South America, forests of
Giant Kelp provide food and shelter for fish, crustaceans and other sea
life. The greatest kelp forests in the world are off the coast of California
where fronds can grow to 200 feet (60 meters), and in the warm sunlit
waters of Southern California can grow more than 10 inches (25 cm) a day.
California kelp is both an important resource and important to the health
of the marine environment so harvesting kelp is highly regulated here. The
main threat to kelp forests is not harvesting but sea urchins. Order more
Uni in your local sushi bar to
help the spiny lobsters keep the sea urchin population under control.
Hundreds of tons of giant kelp are harvested every year for production
of algin, a thickener and stabilizer used in products from toothpaste to
beer to ice cream and to feed farmed abalone.
Wakame - [qundaicai (China),
miyeok (Korea), Undaria pinnatifida]
Related to kelp, wakame is a popular seaweed for soups and salads,
particularly in Japan, It has a softly crunchy texture and a pleasant
slightly spinachy flavor. Most familiar in the U.S. as dry, brittle black
tangles in cellophane bags it is also commonly available fresh salted
in bags in the refrigerated section of markets serving Oriental
communities.
The photo specimens are dried tangle (center), fresh salted tangle
briefly soaked (lower right) and a single piece from the fresh tangle
spread out (upper left), being a short length cut from one side of the
central stem. Fresh salted wakame, soaked for a short time and the salt
rinsed off, has a much fresher flavor and crunchier texture than soaked
dried and I particularly recommend it for salads.
Wakame has recently been found to contain a substance that stimulates
production of a fat burning protein, so expect it to become better known
in the West. It has become a troublesome invasive weed along the coasts
coasts of non-Oriental countries, so eat up!
|
Red Algae
Red Algae (A3) is adapted to living at greater depth
than green and brown algae. Its pigment reflects red light and absorbs blue,
the color that penetrates deepest.
|
Nori - [Laver (Europe), Nori
(Japan), kim, gim (Korea), Porphyra yezoensis and P. tenera,
sometimes other species]
This algae is farmed intensively in Japan, Korea and China. Once harvested
it is shredded and made up into paper-like sheets very much the way handmade
paper is made. These sheets are lightly toasted which turns them green.
They are used as a wrapping for sushi and as a garnish and as a flavoring
in soups.
In Wales similar algae is used to make Laverbread (Bara Lawr)
by boiling the seaweed, then mixing it with oatmeal and frying it. In
the British Isles it is gathered wild in Wales and Scotland rather than
being farmed.
Red Algae is high in protein, iron and iodine as well as containing
significant amounts of vitamins B2, A, D and C.
Irish Moss -
[Carrageen, Chondrus crispus]
Found along the Atlantic coasts of North America and Europe in the
intertidal and subtidal zones, this branching and generally reddish or
purplish seaweed grows to about 9 inches long, It can turn green in strong
sunlight. Similar species are found and harvested off Korea and Japan.
Irish moss is harvested as a source of carrageenan. This substance is
used as a thickener for soups and to make jellies. Industrially it is used
as a thickener and and stabilizer in ice cream, luncheon meats and other
processed foods and also for fining beer and wine. It has a long history
of medicinal use in Europe as well.
Irish moss is always harvested wild, with Canada the major harvester at
about 10,000 tons per year followed by France at about 1,260 tons per
year.
|
Green Algae
Green Algae (A1) is best known from the genus
Ulva, Sea Lettuce or Green Laver.
|
Sea Lettuce - [Green Laver,
Ulva lactuca and other species]
Sea lettuce is found in tidal and near tidal seawater worldwide, generally
anchored to rocks or other algae. It is eaten raw in salads and cooked in
soups, particularly in Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland, China, and
Japan.
Sea lettuce is small, generally around 6 inches long but can grow to
three feet. It is almost transparently thin and consists of a single
frond anchored at one point. It may be ruffled or somewhat divided,
generally resembling the lettuce leaves after which it is named.
Most sea lettuce is gathered wild as it grows prolifically wherever
there are sufficient nutrients, but some is farmed.
|
Cyanobacteria
Cyanobacteria (A4) is an often blue-green bacteria
some varieties of which adhere to each other in long strands that mat
together into a mass resembling algae. While some formerly dormant varieties
are now causing problems with toxic blooms (due mainly to human pollution),
we cannot be too resentful of them. Cyanobacteria are solely responsible for
the oxygen in the atmosphere. Originally they made it all by themselves but
now many live in the chlorophyll of plants and algae where they are the
engine that actually generates the oxygen.
Links
(Top)
|