Coast | Alaskan Harvest Seafood Blog

The Other Seafood

Filed under: Salmon Recipes, Seafood Recipes — Tags: Asian cuisine, Asian food, coast, health, kelp, kelp pickle, nutrition, pickle recipe, pickles, quiz, recipe, Seafood, seafood quiz, seaweed facts —

Not every food from the sea has tentacles, shells, or fins. Even vegetarians can benefit from sustainable ocean harvest. Seaweed, or marine alga, is found all over the world, and has fed humankind for millennia. Of the thousands of species of seaweed that are known to exist, at least 110 of them are edible, and none is known to be poisonous. Marine algae are one of the richest plant-based sources of calcium, and excellent sources of iodine; different varieties also contain mineral nutrients such as potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, selenium, and others, as well as high levels of protein in some, e.g. spirulina.

Here’s a quick picture quiz - identify these common species! (Answers at the bottom).

The American diet has received most of its culinary seaweed culture from Japan, Korea, and China, where seaweed cultivation operations are major industries. While most Americans are familiar with wrapping sushi rolls in brittle sheets of nori, not everyone is aware that many desserts and gels use agar agar as a vegetarian gelatin substitute. Agars have the advantage of being able to solidify while warm, and don’t require refrigeration in order to set.

If you’re curious about seaweed foods but not quite ready to take the leap to eating a salad of something that looks like it washed up on the beach, try kelp pickles first. They’re just as zingy and tasty as those made from cucumbers or other more familiar garden vegetables grown in dirt. They’re also just as simple to make.

Kelp Pickles

You will need:

5 quarts bull kelp
2 cups onions, thinly sliced
5 cups vinegar
5 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp celery seeds
2 tsps mustard seeds

1. You can harvest your own kelp on the beach; my source says that the best picking time is in May and June, but you can find it year-round in many places along the coast. Don’t pick kelp that have white splotches, as they’re over the hill. Rinse them well, but you don’t need to peel or soak them. Cut the “hair” off the heads; the best pickles come from the bulb and stem. Chop them into the size pickles you’d like.

2. Combine everything but the kelp and onions in a large soup pot, then add the vegetables and bring to a boil.

3. Pack them into sterilized jars and then process for 10 minutes in boiling water. Alternatively, you can pack your jars and then use a canner - follow the canner’s instructions for processing.

4. Let stand for about a month for the best flavor before eating. Makes about 8 pints.

Answers to the seaweed quiz - clockwise, from the top left:

arame, dulse, nori, wakame, hijiki, agar agar

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Alaskans Clean Up Their Act

Filed under: Dungeness Crab Recipes, News — Tags: Alaska, clean-up, coast, conservation, ecosystem, garbage, management, shore —

Here’s some good news for a change, and a great example of responsible living and collective stewardship. The MCA foundation, along with dozens of local groups and communities, has cleaned up over one million pounds of trash from 34,000 miles of Alaska’s coastline. That’s enough garbage to fill four 747 jumbo jets: “It’s a lot of junk and a real accomplishment,” said the program coordinator.

Clean-up crews worked in Juneau, Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Bristol Bay, Yakutat, Port Heiden, the Shelikof Strait, the Aleutian Islands, and the Pribilofs to remove the waste, most of which had washed up on the shore after being carried by ocean currents, often for great distances. Unlike beach trash further south, which is primarily made up of packaging for consumables - cans, bags, and cigarette packs, for example - much of the garbage removed from the Alaskan coast was fishing-related, and from as far away as Asia.

The MCA has spent nearly $1 million in clean-up projects, much of which comes from federal funding. Citizens and participants hope that the effort will increase the health and beauty of the natural environment, protect resources, and help maintain both ecological and economic systems through responsible action. Water quality, marine and shore life, and the fishing industry all depend on clean beaches.

Source:

http://www.adn.com/money/story/567889.html