Sea Vegetables...?

[grumblebee]

Hey everyone... I have a few questions about sea vegetables.

I quite like using them but have only tried konbu, wakame and nori. I would like to try dulse and arame. I buy the konbu, wakame and nori from my asian market and they are readily available. I was wondering if the same could be said for dulse and arame? Since I havent ever looked for them I dont know how easily they are to get. Would this be the kind of thing that most asian markets would carry? (with all their other sea veggies)

Also, is wakame the same as alaria or are they different? What about hijiki and arame? (I have heard these can be used interchangably... true?)

Any help is certainly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[pdswife]

I really don't have any answers for you Grumblebee... but hold on
one of our experts will be here soon to help you out.

 

[ironchef]

According to this site, it says that wakame and alaria are related. Probably the main difference is that alaria comes from the Atlantic Ocean and wakame comes from the Pacific. I've never heard of alaria so that's just my best guess.

http://www.truestarhealth.com/Notes/1990006.html

Hijiki and Arame are interchangeable for the most part. My scallop post under the "Today's Menu" thread has a dressing that you can use for either one. You can simplify that recipe or look for simplier ones on the net as well.

As far as availability, I'm not sure because I'm not too familiar with your part of Canada. I've only been to British Columbia which has a high Asian population. The other cities which I've lived in (Los Angeles, Honolulu, Portland, Seattle) have large Asian populations as well which makes finding such ingredients fairly easy.

 

[Zereh]

Here's a tried-and-true rice salad that uses hijiki which I posted a few months back. We have a great local Japanese grocery store chain (Uwajimaya) which carries some amazing and very interesting things, including a huge array of sea vegetables. There are some in the frozen section as well as tons of dried varieties. I'd think that any store which carries the three that you're familiar with would carry others as well. =)

This one is simple and great! I use my rice cooker to make the rice instead of the stovetop method. You can eat it chilled as well, but I like my warm or at room temp best.

Hijiki Rice Salad

1-ounce dried hijiki (scant 1 cup)
2 1/4 c water
3/4 t salt
1 c uncooked long-grain rice
2 T toasted sesame seeds
4 scallions, minced
1 1/2 c snow peas, cut into thin julienne strips
1 small carrot, minced
1 t grated fresh ginger
1/4 rice vinegar
2 t sugar
2 T canola or corn oil
fresh-ground pepper to taste

Soak the hijiki in cool water for 1 hour, then drain it

Bring the water and 1/2 t salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the rice. Turn the heat to low and cover the pan. Simmer the rice for 20 minutes.

While the rice simmers, cook the hijiki: In a saucepan, cover the hijiki generously with water. Simmer it over medium-low heat for about 15-20 minutes, or until the hijiki is tender. Drain the hijiki and rinse it in cold water.

Toast the sesame seeds in a small, dry skillet over medium heat, shaking the pan periodically, until they brown lightly and smell good. Transfer the seeds to a small plate to cool.

Combine the scallions, snow peas and carrot in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, combine the sugar, ginger, vinegar, sugar and oil.

Add the warm cooked rice to the vegetables. Add the cool hijiki and the vinaigrette, too. Toss well. Add the sesame seeds, the remaining 1/4 t salt and the pepper and toss again. Serve the salad warm, or chill it for 1 hour first.


Z

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[grumblebee]

Thanks ironchef and zereh. I'm going to have to do a bit of hunting. Zereh, you think I could find some of them in the frozen section? I'll have to look... I was going to just look around the dehydrated stuff. The recipe looks great... copying and pasting that one for sure! I love asian flavours and foods... yum.

 

[kimbaby]

never ever heard of any of this but I am very intrigued tell me more...

 

[subfuscpersona]

hi grumblebee-

I would think an asian market would carry dulse, arame and/or hijiki (I've also seen it spelled "hiziki").

In my location, I've found Asian markets to be excellent and *inexpensive* sources of dried seaweed. Some of these seaweeds are also carried in health food stores at *much higher* prices.

Also, I've found that dried shitake mushrooms are much cheaper when purchased from an Asian market.

One problem with shopping at an Asian market is that there may be no English translation of the type of seaweed on the package. (I had this problem when shopping for seaweed at a Korean market but I had a lengthy - and language challenged - conversation with the store manager and ultimately I purchased a number of types of seaweed, all of which I found to be delicious and a few I was actually able to recognize once they were rehydrated.)

Seaweed is an excellent source of minerals. I use different varieties a lot, not only in Asian style dishes but in dishes from other cuisines. For example, sometimes I add kombu or shitake mushrooms to polenta. I often add kombu when cooking beans. Sometimes I add seaweed to a rice dish.

If you have a small electric coffee mill, you can use it to powder dried seaweed and then use it as you might use a spice or any other dried seasoning.

Best of luck in your exploration of seaweed.

 

[buckytom]

go here: www.seaveg.com for some good info.

i love all kinds of seaweed, including nori, laver, and dulse.

dulse is "produced" in ireland, so you might find it in an irish/uk type shop.
when my dad was a kid, on summer vacations in donegal and mayo he used to pick it in low tide, and put it on wooden drying racks to dehydrate it.

a buddy in belfast sends me packages of maroon colored dulse every now and then. i relish the salty little weeds.