.JPG)
Looking forward to getting some from the West coast soon
Monday, August 2, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Karengo
Karengo
Closely related to Japanese nori and Welsh laver, the red seaweed karengo (Porphyra species) is a delicacy to Māori. Found growing on intertidal rocks on exposed coasts, karengo is picked and sun-dried in winter months. It keeps for a long time in a dry condition. When used in cooking the dried seaweed is steamed or simmered for 30 minutes.
Karengo is harvested from the Kaikoura Coastline in August and September and is common on the upper intertidal zone. A highly edible seaweed.
NZ Celery - Apium prostratum
This native plant grows in coastal regions and is an excellent culinary herb. It looks like Italian parsley but with bulkier leafs. The taste is crisp and intense- an ideal addition to a salad. Can be grown from seeds available from North Island company -
www.naturallynative.co.nz/culinary.php.
Note three other species below are also ideal native plants with excellent culinary values. I recently tried the NZ spinach as a garnish at Fleur's Place in Otago- great with seafood.
NZ Spinach - Tetragonia tetragonioides
Cook’s Scurvy Grass - Lepidium oleraceum
NZ Cress - Rorippa divaricata.
NZ Celery grows on many places on Bank's Penisula and along our coastal regions.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Bladder Kelp
A highly nutrious seaweed that thrives around banks peninsula. the blades can be dried, then oven baked and eaten like a seaweed potato chip or ground down to make a seaweed "pepper". Once cooked blades turn a bright green colour and can be used to wrap seafood in. A fantastic resource. (PAL)
Scientific name -
Macrocystis pyrifera-
FOLLOWING EXTRAXT FROM STUFF-
"It's a free, nutritious and a sustainable source of food. And to get it, all you have to do is get wet.
It's seaweed. And Sally Carson, of Otago University's Marine Studies Centre, says we should all be eating more of this hugely beneficial food.
Next month, at the New Zealand international science festival in Dunedin, she is organising a session dubbed "the incredible, edible seaweed workshop" to explain why we should eat it, and how to harvest and cook it.
Carson's love of seaweed began in her native Canada when she worked in a marine laboratory on Vancouver Island. "The wonderful thing about seaweed is that you don't have to worry about any of it being poisonous. It's all edible, it's just that some varieties taste better than others."
Carson's recommendation for gathering seaweed is to take the outer parts of an attached plant and to know where you're collecting it from. "One of the reasons that seaweed is so good for you is because it absorbs minerals and nutrients, but it also absorbs pollutants, so it should be collected in non-polluted areas."
After that take it home, rinse it in cold water, and dry it on the clothesline. "I'm not a particularly good cook so I tend to use it more as a herb. I put it in stir-fries, soups, on baked potatoes, pizza, and in spaghetti sauce."
When she really wants to make an impression she makes seaweed chips. "It's my signature dish and I think much better than potato chips. They're great with beer, quite addictive, and a really good conversation piece."
But it doesn't have to be dried. Varieties like Neptune's necklace, common to beaches, are "lovely and crunchy" in a salad, but be sure to chop it up so the seawater drains from the tiny bladders. And blanched undaria (kelp) with a dressing of chilli, oil, sesame seed and vinegar is "absolutely gorgeous".
KELP CHIPS
CUT DRIED kelp into bite-sized pieces. Pour a thin layer of olive or sesame oil into frying pan or wok. Toss kelp continuously in the oil and let cook over a medium-high element for 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or honey. When green and crispy, take off the heat and drain on paper (should be hardly any excess oil)."
Shore line foraging- Canterbury
Coastal foraging
Peter Langlands
110710
For me one of the most exciting aspects of heading down to the beach is gathering wild foods. Why? Firstly hunting out “Wildfoods” can be incidental to tramping. It makes sense to gather edible things that you come across. In many cases the food will be very healthy and organic, and you have the benefit of knowing where it come from. Other benefits include that the food is often more intense in taste than commercially available options and in some cases, especially pauas there aren’t many (if any!) commercially available options.
Bountiful shellfish
I love shoreline foraging with its wide diversity shellfish available. Interestingly during the Irish potato famine many people starved on the doorstep of rich shoreline food resources, a great tragedy, due in part upon reliance primarily on potatoes and an ignorance of shoreline foods. Shellfish are readily available and are best taken after periods of low rainfall, or a hundred metres or so away from any significant freshwater source (if it is running off agricultural land).
Green shell mussels are a mainstay and grow to a good size. I like to snorkel for mussels, as often the mussels below the low tide mark are of larger size and better condition, than those in the inter- tidal. Blue mussels are smaller than green lips and grow higher up on the tide line and are as good, if slightly different in taste, as the better-known green shell mussel.
Rock oysters, which proliferate round much of our coastline, are often overlooked. Several large rock oysters are equal to a Bluff oyster and in my opinion their taste is more intense. The rock oyster tends to be a more southern species with the Pacific oyster growing from the northern South Island and throughout the North Island, often on sheltered parts of the coast around mudflats or sheltered waterways (such as the Marlborough Sounds).
On more exposed parts of the rocky coastlines pauas are the top prize or the shoreline forager. On remoter parts of our coastline legal sized pauas can be gathered at low tide, but often snorkelling gear is required to get legal sized pauas in many areas these days.
Magic of wharves
I love chilling out and fishing from wharves. The key to success here is to use small hooks. Large spotties and yellow-eyed mullet make great eating when fresh. I love eating whole fish, off the bone, after crisping them up and serving with a tomato and chilli pesto. Jack mackerel can be caught around many wharves in the northern parts of New Zealand and are delicious when hot-smoked.
Potting
Potting for paddlecrabs or “piecrust crabs” is a fun activity. A simple hoop pot baited with an oily fish such as a mackerel works very well. Wharves make good spots for potting for piecrust crabs (which have beautiful meat in their claws). If you have a kayak then placing pots in further from shore, over open sand, will allow you to catch paddle crabs. The other exciting part of hoop potting is the by-catch- anything from brittle stars to seahorses will turn up to fascinate the kids.
Healthy seaweeds
On the rocky shoreline don’t overlook the wide range of edible seaweeds that occur there. Seaweeds are incredibly healthy with high levels of trace elements. Bladder kelp is one of my favourites. The blades of the kelp, when dried slowly in the oven, turn from a brown to green colour. Once crispened by baking in olive oil, and with a little cracked pepper, they make delicious “seaweed flavoured potato chip”. Neptune’s necklace when likely blanched and added to a salad makes a point of interest.
Karengo, dark bladed kelp growing high up on the inter-tidal, is often in its prime in late winter. When fried with a mix of olive oil and butter, along with some cracked pepper it is delicious. Karengo has grown significantly in popularity in recent years as a point of interest by many chefs, and is commercially harvested in areas such as Kaikoura. Undaria, the seaweed accidentally introduced from Japan, is also a prime food source when dried out. As people look to more healthy forms of food, interest in gathering seaweeds is growing.
Coastal herbs
The shoreline area is not only a rich source of shellfish and seaweeds but many types of herbs grow wild along the shore. Wild fennel is often very prolific in dry stony areas. The fennel makes a great herb for favouring seafood dishes, and can also be brewed to make a refreshing tea. The seedpods, from fennel, when ground down also make an intense flavouring. Italian parsley often grows prolifically along shoreline areas in the rank shrub just above the high tide mark. Winter is a good time to gather Italian parsley and having go at making homemade pesto with it.
There is nothing to me more comforting than cooking freshly gathered wild foods and cooking them up over a beach fire. If local regulations prohibit the use of an open fire, then a gas cooker is a passable substitute. There is nothing like dining alfresco, even in winter, and looking out over a beautiful coastal view. Brewing up a strong espresso is often a good way to “sign-off” from a days’ shoreline foraging.
So next time you head down to the beach take a bucket or two, a chilly bin, a gas cooker, a sharp knife, a hammer and chisel (for the Pacific and rock oysters), some snorkelling gear, a couple of fishing rods and have dinner. At the end of the day there is nothing like some fresh sea air to clear away the cobwebs of city living. By bringing some food back to the table you can also re-live the days events. Happy foraging.
Peter Langlands
110710
For me one of the most exciting aspects of heading down to the beach is gathering wild foods. Why? Firstly hunting out “Wildfoods” can be incidental to tramping. It makes sense to gather edible things that you come across. In many cases the food will be very healthy and organic, and you have the benefit of knowing where it come from. Other benefits include that the food is often more intense in taste than commercially available options and in some cases, especially pauas there aren’t many (if any!) commercially available options.
Bountiful shellfish
I love shoreline foraging with its wide diversity shellfish available. Interestingly during the Irish potato famine many people starved on the doorstep of rich shoreline food resources, a great tragedy, due in part upon reliance primarily on potatoes and an ignorance of shoreline foods. Shellfish are readily available and are best taken after periods of low rainfall, or a hundred metres or so away from any significant freshwater source (if it is running off agricultural land).
Green shell mussels are a mainstay and grow to a good size. I like to snorkel for mussels, as often the mussels below the low tide mark are of larger size and better condition, than those in the inter- tidal. Blue mussels are smaller than green lips and grow higher up on the tide line and are as good, if slightly different in taste, as the better-known green shell mussel.
Rock oysters, which proliferate round much of our coastline, are often overlooked. Several large rock oysters are equal to a Bluff oyster and in my opinion their taste is more intense. The rock oyster tends to be a more southern species with the Pacific oyster growing from the northern South Island and throughout the North Island, often on sheltered parts of the coast around mudflats or sheltered waterways (such as the Marlborough Sounds).
On more exposed parts of the rocky coastlines pauas are the top prize or the shoreline forager. On remoter parts of our coastline legal sized pauas can be gathered at low tide, but often snorkelling gear is required to get legal sized pauas in many areas these days.
Magic of wharves
I love chilling out and fishing from wharves. The key to success here is to use small hooks. Large spotties and yellow-eyed mullet make great eating when fresh. I love eating whole fish, off the bone, after crisping them up and serving with a tomato and chilli pesto. Jack mackerel can be caught around many wharves in the northern parts of New Zealand and are delicious when hot-smoked.
Potting
Potting for paddlecrabs or “piecrust crabs” is a fun activity. A simple hoop pot baited with an oily fish such as a mackerel works very well. Wharves make good spots for potting for piecrust crabs (which have beautiful meat in their claws). If you have a kayak then placing pots in further from shore, over open sand, will allow you to catch paddle crabs. The other exciting part of hoop potting is the by-catch- anything from brittle stars to seahorses will turn up to fascinate the kids.
Healthy seaweeds
On the rocky shoreline don’t overlook the wide range of edible seaweeds that occur there. Seaweeds are incredibly healthy with high levels of trace elements. Bladder kelp is one of my favourites. The blades of the kelp, when dried slowly in the oven, turn from a brown to green colour. Once crispened by baking in olive oil, and with a little cracked pepper, they make delicious “seaweed flavoured potato chip”. Neptune’s necklace when likely blanched and added to a salad makes a point of interest.
Karengo, dark bladed kelp growing high up on the inter-tidal, is often in its prime in late winter. When fried with a mix of olive oil and butter, along with some cracked pepper it is delicious. Karengo has grown significantly in popularity in recent years as a point of interest by many chefs, and is commercially harvested in areas such as Kaikoura. Undaria, the seaweed accidentally introduced from Japan, is also a prime food source when dried out. As people look to more healthy forms of food, interest in gathering seaweeds is growing.
Coastal herbs
The shoreline area is not only a rich source of shellfish and seaweeds but many types of herbs grow wild along the shore. Wild fennel is often very prolific in dry stony areas. The fennel makes a great herb for favouring seafood dishes, and can also be brewed to make a refreshing tea. The seedpods, from fennel, when ground down also make an intense flavouring. Italian parsley often grows prolifically along shoreline areas in the rank shrub just above the high tide mark. Winter is a good time to gather Italian parsley and having go at making homemade pesto with it.
There is nothing to me more comforting than cooking freshly gathered wild foods and cooking them up over a beach fire. If local regulations prohibit the use of an open fire, then a gas cooker is a passable substitute. There is nothing like dining alfresco, even in winter, and looking out over a beautiful coastal view. Brewing up a strong espresso is often a good way to “sign-off” from a days’ shoreline foraging.
So next time you head down to the beach take a bucket or two, a chilly bin, a gas cooker, a sharp knife, a hammer and chisel (for the Pacific and rock oysters), some snorkelling gear, a couple of fishing rods and have dinner. At the end of the day there is nothing like some fresh sea air to clear away the cobwebs of city living. By bringing some food back to the table you can also re-live the days events. Happy foraging.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)