WEEDS ARE WILD HERBS

I LIKE TO WANDER outdoors in the fields and the orchards, picking the fruits and vegetables. I look at what is planted, at the rows of trees in the orchard or the beets. But I need to see everything that is growing there—both food and weed—without a value judgment. To me, they are the same.

When I go to the sea, it’s not just the fish or the oysters, I’m also tasting the briny sea weeds and beach weeds. It’s not bad just because it doesn’t come in a package with the label “all natural.”

There is a word in Danish for weeds, ukrudt, which roughly translates as “un-herb.” Weeds are considered waste because we have decided they are bad. Just look at all the weed killers and poisons on the market. But whether you call them wild herbs or weeds, they are amazing and delicious.

 

Seaweeds and Sea Herbs

Seafood almost always means only fish and shellfish, the proteins of the sea. But the sea is a community of edible wildlife, just as meat and plants coexist on the land.

SEAWEEDS

For many people, their sole association with fresh seaweed is walking by (and avoiding) the fishy-smelling slimy brown stuff washed up on beaches. However, seaweed that is stretched, dried, and toasted into sheets—i.e., seaweed as nori—is transformed into a great essence of flavor, a bouillon of the sea, loaded with umami.

There is a long history of seaweed use in Nordic countries dating back to at least the tenth century: dulse baked in bread, dried as a snack, used in soups. Asia also has a long history of using seaweed. Professional kitchens regularly use seaweed as an umami flavor enhancement.

Seaweeds are a primary source of omega-3s and have a mineral content that is ten times that of most land plants, and they contain vitamins A, B, C, and E.

I love the weeds of the sea, especially kelp. Sugar kelp I can find off the East Coast of the United States. It is large, brown, and has a great, briny flavor—salty, but deeper, and with some hints of minerals.

The easiest way to enjoy fresh kelp is to dip it briefly in a pot of boiling water. You’ll see how the color changes from brown to living green in a few seconds. (Better than a chemistry class!) Remove and slice the warm, green, mild kelp into slivers and use it to top grilled fish drizzled with an herb oil and Parmesan Rind Broth (here).

Seaweed can also be dried, aged, and grated like a fine cheese. In Japan, drying seaweed is a labor-intensive, artisanal craft (see here for sources). Konbu (dried kelp) is the foundation for a dashi broth, which I use in Smoky Potato Scrap Broth (here) and Sweet & Salty Fish Collars (here). Seaweed vinegar powder is on the Puffed Fish Skins (here). Other seaweeds that I favor are sea lettuce and dulse. Dulse has long been used in Scandinavia, but I can also get applewood-smoked dulse from Maine.

SEA HERBS

Fresh sea herbs have a mineral-y, briny taste that you can’t get from a salt shaker. Small leaves and tips of orache, sea purslane, sea rocket, sea blite, and sea beans grow in coastal areas of North America (as well as on the shores of Denmark). These are some of my favorites; only a small amount adds a big burst of flavor to almost any dish.

A note on sustainability: Beach herbs should be harvested very sparingly and never pulled out due to their important relationship with beach ecology as well as their role preventing dune erosion.