Every day during the summer, at 6:56 am and 8:43 am, Marion Sauveur gives you an idea of a recipe to brighten up your taste buds.
Today, algae.
Marion Sauveur, like every day, we rediscover the products of our terroirs with you. Today, we head for the seaside in search of algae.
These are the first plants that appeared on our beautiful planet. They are precious because they produce 90% of the world's oxygen that we breathe. And they have been tasted for a long time, particularly in Asia. Seaweed was part of the feasts of the kings of China as early as the 6th century. Today, they are essential in Japanese cuisine but not yet rooted in our French culture.
And yet algae are concentrates of trace elements, iodine, vitamins and mineral salts with a powerful taste of the sea. They are not plants like salicornia and beta maritima. Algae have no roots, flowers or leaves. They use crampons to grab onto rocks. They should be harvested by hand on the foreshore at low tide, preferably when they are still submerged in seawater and not pluck them but cut them so that they can regrow.
We distinguish algae by their color. There are brown algae such as sea beans, which is also called "sea spaghetti" and which is eaten like a vegetable; Kombu Royal, a flat seaweed with a smoky taste; or the Wakame which looks like a fern. Red algae like Dulse, which grows in small clumps; or Nori which turns green when dried and which is eaten with lemurs. Green algae such as sea lettuce with a taste similar to sorrel… or blue algae such as spirulina.
Over 700 species thrive along our coasts.
France is the 7th largest producer of algae in the world, but their harvest is regulated to protect the ecosystem.
To cook them, the ideal is to harvest them fresh but as we do not all live by the sea, we are lucky to be able to find them in fishmongers or dried in organic stores or specialized grocery stores like the "Roellinger Spices".
How do you propose to cook them?
Raw, In tartare with eggs.
I really like this salty flavor brought to the egg.
If you are lucky enough to be by the sea, go pick fresh seaweed like dulse easy to find on our coasts.
Alternatively, you can buy dried seaweed and rehydrate it overnight with a little water and olive oil.
If they are fresh: slice your seaweed and marinate it in olive oil.
Add a sliced pepper that you have roasted for about 30 minutes in the oven.
And in a very hot pan, brown a few slices of red onion.
Crack the eggs.
Add the tartare on top and cook until the egg white is cooked through, a few chopped basil leaves and all you have to do is serve with a ratatouille for example!
The ingredients for 2 people:
4 eggs
1 dulce (or 50g of dried seaweed)
1 bell pepper
½ red onion
4 basil leaves
2 tablespoons of olive oil
The steps of the recipe:
1.
If you have dried seaweed, start by rehydrating it overnight with 8 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
2.
If they are fresh: slice your seaweed… and marinate them in olive oil.
3.
Meanwhile, bake your pepper at 200 degrees without the white ribs and seeds.
Cut into 3 pieces, flat, skin side up.
When the skin of the peppers is black, place them in a bowl with a lid after a few minutes you can remove their skin.
4.
Cut the peppers into small cubes and put them with the seaweed.
5.
In a very hot pan, brown a few slices of red onion.
Crack the eggs.
Add the tartare on top and cook until the egg white is cooked through.
Add the chopped basil leaves.
Like every morning, you offer us the tips of a chef.
And today that of Julien Lemarié of the Ima and Imayoko restaurants in Rennes, who makes seaweed butter. "You are going to take butter that you are going to leave at room temperature. We will rehydrate about ten grams of algae flakes. We will put a little water in it, it will go very quickly. If we have fresh algae. you have to chop them well, rinse them sufficiently. You may have to resalt a little bit because it is true when it dries naturally, the salt is more concentrated. And some lemon zest too. I mix everything together and cut into slices that we are going to put in pasta, on roast meat. "
With a fish, the agreement will be perfect!
Or simply for the aperitif on a slice of rye bread.
Julien Lemarié is currently offering at Ima a Saint-Pierre, rolled in grated kombu seaweed with vinegar.
A seaweed that will become crispy when cooked.
Do you have a second address to advise us for tasting seaweed?
In Annecy, chef Clément Leroy of the Bleu 1801 restaurant makes a parsley made from dulse, sea lettuce, wakame to which he adds capers and garlic but also butter.
Persillade that you can taste in particular on its suckling lamb cooked between land and sea.