Hello My Name Is: Dulse

images from algaebase.org

Dulse (pronounced as it looks) is a red algae that grows on the northern coasts of the Pacific and the Atlantic. Its often called "red kale" or the "beef jerky of the sea". It has a chewy, stringy texture and a nut-like flavor.

Growing habitat: Dulse fronds are 6 to 12 inches long. The plant attaches to rocks by a "holdfast," and grows in cold, turbulent waters on rocky shores (Pacific & Atlantic). Harvesting occurs from May through October when the plants are picked by hand during low tide and then sun dried.

Aliases: Palmaria palmata, Crannogh, Darusu, Dulce, Dillisk, Goéman à Vache, Neptune's Girdle, Raa-ts, Red Kale, Saccha, Sea-grass, Sheep Dulse, Shelldulse, Sol, Sou Sol, Tellesk, Water Leaf

Nutrition: Dulse is a good source of vegetable protein, iron, potassium, magnesium, iodine, chlorophyll, enzymes, Vitamin A, Vitamin B's, and dietary fiber. It is said to have the highest concentration of iron of any food.

History: Dulse has been been harvested for thousands of years in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Iceland. At the beginning of the 20th century it was often found in railroad stations as a snack.

Uses: Dried dulse can be chewed as is, pan fried, baked, chopped up and and added to soups or salads. Crumbled up it can act as a seasoning. Most people prefer to eat it not cooked because it gets mushy quickly. It can be bought in its whole form or as seasoning.

Preparation: If you're preparing to cook dulse: inspect for small shells; quickly rinse to tenderize and reduce saltiness; and chop or snip for use. More info can be found here.

Recipes:
Garden Salad with Dulse and Walnuts
Popcorn with Dulse
Chef Ken Bereron's Serendipity Smoked Dulse and Red Miso Dressing (scroll down)
American Dulse Pesto Sauce
Avocado Dip with Dulse Flakes
Dulse Chickpea Salad
Dulse Olive Tapenade
Dulse Vegetarian Pizza

Hello My Name Is: Wakame

Images from algaebase.org

Wakame, (meaning "young girl" ) (Wa-KAMAY) like all sea vegetables is a type of algae. Wakame is specifically a type of (edible) kelp. that's been grown for centuries by Korean and Japanese sea-farmers. Its blades are 2 to 4 feet long. Wakame is extensively used in miso soup.

Aliases: Alaria Marginata, Undaria pinnatifida,

Growing habitat: Wakame is native to Japan and thrives in turbulent waters. The plants will grow up to 20" long in water up to 40' deep. Harvesting is mostly in the spring from boats with the use of a rake or pole.

Nutrition: Wakame has high levels of protein, calcium, iodine, magnesium, iron and folate. It is close in nutritional value to Kombu.

Uses: Can be put in soups or used in salads; used in miso soup; roasted; deep fried; or eaten fresh. Like Kombu, it can also be used to aid with softening other foods (like beans).

Preparation: Rinse under cold water and soak dried wakame in a bowl of water to rehydrate for about 30 minutes (note: will grow about 10 times of what it was dried) until soft. Remove from water and reserve water for broth — the water contains a lot of nutrients. Cut out the central vein(rib) and chop according to recipe.

Recipes:
Cucumber and Wakame Seaweed Salad (Sunomono)
Seaweed Salad
Miso Soup
Cool Weather Miso Soup

Sea Vegetable Shopping

This weekend I picked up a bunch of sea vegetables to start cooking with. I was most interested in finding sea vegetables from the Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company because it was the most local source that I had heard of. So when I went to Berkeley Bowl this weekend, I was psyched to see a display filled with sea vegetables from Mendocino that wasn't there last week.

Knowing that I wanted to try all the different kinds and not sure if they would carry the sea vegetables next week, I grabbed a huge variety (I think I grabbed every kind they had). The packages were about $5 per pack. This is what I got:


Sea Palm Fronds, Sea Whip Fronds, North Atlantic + Flaked Dulse


Wakame and Kombu



I especially liked their hand drawn labels and simple packaging which gives them a more personal, local feeling. Each package has a hand written slogan specific to environmental conservation. Clean Energy Now, Keep Our Oceans Wild, Harvest Within the Natural Flow, Stop Offshore Oil & Gas Exploration and Protect Our Arctic Refuge are some of the slogans on each label. The back side of each label has handwritten recipes specific to the sea vegetable in the bag.

I don't know quite enough about sea vegetables yet to fully understand how different the quality is between local product and product from Asian countries and other parts of the world, but it made sense to me to try and get local first as much as I can.

That being said, before I went to Berkeley Bowl, I went to the Alameda Natural Grocery to check out their sea vegetable supply. They didn't have any from Mendocino, so I picked up a bunch of Eden sea vegetables not knowing that Berkeley Bowl would have what I needed. Eden is a great company with sustainable practices and on their sea vegetable faq they mention:

Eden Sea Vegetables are the highest quality in the world, cultivated or wild, hand harvested in pristine, environmentally protected seas. All Eden Sea Vegetables, except Eden Organic Dulse, come from Japan where they are continuously fed and cleansed by Arctic Currents, and collected off shorelines that are protected as national natural treasures

It was important to me that they are hand harvested (like Mendocino's). Eden also has a great sea vegetable recipe page which will be helpful figuring out what I can make with all of these sea vegetables! These are the types I got:


Eden Kombu & Wakame

When I got home from the store I put them in a dark dry cabinet as recommended. High temperature & humidity can start to break down the vitamins in the sea vegetables after awhile, but sealed and stored properly they can last for years.

Book Resources

Here are some of the books I'm currently pouring through for information on sea vegetable cooking, foraging and nutritional benefits. I'll let you know how they turn out.


Cooking with Sea Vegetables by Peter Bradford and Montse Bradford


Sea Vegetable Gourmet Cookbook and Wildcrafter's Guide by Eleanor Lewallen, John Lewallen, and Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company


Sea Vegetable Celebration: Recipes Using Ocean Vegetables by Shep Erhart and Leslie Cerier


Vegetables from the Sea: Everyday Cooking with Sea Greens by Jill Gusman and Adrienne Ingrum

Juel Andersen's Sea Green Primer: A Beginner's Book of Sea Weed Cookery

Why Sea Vegetables?

My interest in learning more about sea vegetables, (commonly known as seaweed) comes from advice given to me by my Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner. As a quick background, I've been going to see this person for 2 years and have had really great success with TCM. Its really helped me to be more healthy and more aware of my overall health. Also, in comparison to western medicine which is a couple hundred years old, TCM is a couple of thousand years old.

In my family all of the women have a history of under active thyroid glands. The thyroid controls a important functions in the body, like regulating metabolism and controlling growth. When people develop hypothyroidism, the symptoms (tiredness, depression, weight gain) can be really severe. There are many causes for hypothyroidism, but deficiency in iodine is the major cause. The western treatment for an underactive (hypo) thyroid condition is a combination of drugs that are synthetic versions or animal-derived thyroid hormones.

Because I'm genetically predisposed to this condition, I was told by my TCM practitioner that increasing my sea vegetable intake could help lower my chances of developing it myself. With that in mind, I've decided to learn more about sea vegetables so that I can incorporate them more into my food. I'm deciding to focus on 3 main objectives:

1. To learn about sea vegetable types, accessibility, nutritional benefits, medicinal qualities. The personal aspect of this objective is to learn how to incorporate sea vegetables consistently into my personal diet. Documentation will include images, recipes and personal thoughts on the experience.

2. To learn about the harvesting of sea vegetables from documented sources and (hopefully) through talking with people who already participate in this activity. I would also like to experience the harvesting firsthand by visiting one of the sea vegetable companies in Mendocino, CA and participating in the harvesting.

3. To learn about the environmental issues surrounding sea vegetable growth in terms of water pollution, harvesting, sustainability, etc. This ties into objective 2, because I'm personally curious to know where its safe to forage for sea vegetables.

Sea vegetables are a highly nutritious whole food option that most people (with the exception of asian cultures) don’t regularly incorporate into their diet. Sea vegetables are also interesting because they're part of the limited food category of food that still can be foraged for.

So that being said, this is where I'm starting from.

What is a Sea Vegetable?

Wikipedia defines "Sea vegetables" as : seaweeds that are used as vegetables.