Seaweed - the new Nordic potato
Seaweed is full of minerals, vitamins and other beneficial nutrients, which makes it an excellent nutritious supplement to the Nordic kitchen. Although it grows in abundance, right outside the door, seaweed is an underexploited raw material, but that will change, many people predict. “Seaweed quite simply makes food more interesting”, says gourmet chef Leif Sørensen, who serves seaweed as snacks, in soups, as seasoning, in delicious desserts – and in seaweed akvavit.
Seaweed in cooking
A lot of experiments and research are taking place in seaweed production in the Nordic countries, and a number of reputable chefs are experimenting with developing the great taste and nutrient opportunities inherent in seaweed. So far it is probably mostly health freaks who eat seaweed on a daily basis, but many believe that this will change. Among them is Leif Sørensen, the well-known and awarded chef who has managed several leading restaurants in the Faroe Islands.
“I both hope and expect that seaweed will soon become a more ordinary ingredient in Nordic cooking”, says Leif Sørensen. He attaches great importance to basing cooking on locally sourced, native ingredients. His starting point has always been to go for the story - and this has led him to one of the most obvious and yet under utilised raw material, seaweed, in its many challenging and tempting versions.
Leif Sørensen uses seaweed frequently in his kitchen - both professionally and privately. He dries the seaweed himself, and works with it carefully to learn about its qualities and possibilities. At the moment he is maturing akvavit with so-called rope seaweed, which looks like long thick hair - or thin rope. This seaweed has a nice taste of licorice, suitable for a special akvavit with a good story. Once Leif took dried seaweed to a chefs' meeting in Lofoten and offered a taste to a Korean chef who has great experience with seaweed.
“The Korean chef claimed that he had very seldom tasted such good seaweed”, says Leif Sørensen, knowing that the Korean knew what he was talking about, as seaweed plays a key role in the Korean food culture. A large amount of Nordic seaweed grows in a cold and clean habitat, which provides a good foundation for high quality.
Insatiable ingredient
Seaweed grows all over the world and it has been calculated that about 15 million tons of seaweed are harvested every year for human consumption. The vast majority of this is produced and harvested in Asia. The Nordic countries harvest a very modest 0.01 million tons which makes up a minimal share of the available resource. A large number of Nordic restaurants have gradually introduced different dishes with seaweed onto the menu, but seaweed continues to be used primarily for industrial purposes. Outside of Asia, Norway is the country that exploits the largest amount of brown algae, with a harvest of 150,000 tons for the production of alginate which is used in industry.
Nordic focus on seaweed
New Nordic Food II, which is a programme under the Nordic Council of Ministers, has made seaweed one of its focus areas. The aim is to focus on the wealth of opportunities that seaweed offers as a healthy supplement to the Nordic kitchen. This is being done by creating forums where skilled chefs, seaweed divers, researchers, entrepreneurs and producers have the chance to meet, share knowledge and experiences, and create greater awareness of seaweed as food. The goal is to teach children and adults to eat seaweed. And to gather and share more knowledge about the excellent qualities of seaweed, but also about the sustainable use and possible less attractive sides of seaweed. In the Nordic Region, the opportunities for eating more seaweed are being assessed as there may be major health benefits in eating more seaweed.
For more information:
Janet Fríða Johannesen, Project Manager, New Nordic Food II, jj@atlantico.fo ,+298 212211
Original article is written by journalist Bjørt Samuelsen
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