Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

[Miss Phode]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

I couldn't stand it anymore, so I went out for sushi yesterday, sashimi actually and had some seaweed salad. yum! very expensive though. It would have been much much much cheaper to splurge on the $8 shipping for the mix you found.

[not2late]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

Phode, all this talk of seaweed salad has got me wanting some... The office is closing early today, so on my way home I'll stop by a little Asian grocery store and see what I can find.

[not2late]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

I borrowed a cookbook called Kathy Cooks Naturally by Kathy Hoshijo. She was a natural foods/vegan advocate in the 70s and 80s and had her own cooking show on American Pulibc Television. Anyhow, I was looking through her book and she has a whole chapter on seaweed.

A couple of the recipes stood out:

Fried Kombu Chips:

Rehydrate the kombu/kelp. Cut into bite size pieces. Then throw it in the freezer. Freezing will make the kmobu more tender. Defrost. Then brush the kombu pieces with soy sauce. Deep fry in oil until crispy.

Baked Kombu Chips:
Prepare like the Fried Kombu, but place in a single layer on a baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F until crispy.

I'll have to try it out because it sounds interesting.

There are also a few recipes/ideas for Nori sheets.

One Nori sheet recipe is to brush it with soy sauce. Then bake it until it's crisp and eat it like potato chips. I can imagine doing that...especially flavoring it further with alittle cayenne or something of that nature.

[Miss Phode]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

I love Nori. Over the weekend, I made a marinated cucumber/shiitake mushroom salad of sorts, and rolled it up in nori sheets and ate it. It was really good.

I had dried shiitake so I soaked them in warm water for 30 minutes. Then I peeled, seeded and sliced a cucumber. Sliced the shiitake, and tossed it in a bowl with chili oil, sesame seeds, tamari and ginger, chilled it, and ate it wrapped in nori sheets. Yum. It was a total mess though. Juice running down my arm and what not.

[not2late]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

I love Nori too! I like using it as a wrap.

[not2late]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

Okay seaweed fans, or those who won't mind trying it out beyond sushi rolls....

I came across a recipe for kelp/kombu chips. Basically, it's kombu/kelp that is deep fried until crispy. I was a little skeptical about it. So I looked for more recipes---and got more confused.

Anyhow, this is what I did:

Kombu/Kelp chips

A piece of dried kelp/kombu
peanut oil

Try to keep the kombu/kelp in one large piece when separating it from the other leaves in the package. Run it under hot water for no more than 30 seconds, while rubbing off the excess salt and grit. The kombu/kelp will expand at least twice its size. Dry thoroughly on paper toweling. Using scissors cut the seaweed into 2 in x 3 inch pieces or whatever size you like. Set aside.

In a deep saucepan, pour about 2 inches worth of peanut oil. Heat over medium high heat until it a corner of a seaweed strip placed into it fries vigorously. Fry the strips, pressing them into the hot oil with a spoon, until the seaweed is bubbly and the color changes to a slightly brownish color. Remove from the oil, drain on paper towels.

These chips are FANTASTIC!!!!! They don't need extra salt. They are crispy like potato chips. They are sturdy enough to dip.

I'll take pics of them the next time I make it (which will be in the very near future!).

[diwitch]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

Sounds interesting, do you know the carb count on them?

[not2late]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c20gD.html

Here's nutritional info on kelp/kombu. But most packages of the seaweed have nutritional infor on it. So I follow that.

[diwitch]

Re: Unusual Ingredients: Sea vegetables

Thank you