Did you know about sea truffles? Seaweed with a truffled taste
What if you used seaweed to give your dishes a truffle-like flavour? It's possible! Discover Vertebrata lanosa, a sea vegetable nicknamed "the sea truffle".
The benefits of seaweed for our bodies are numerous. A source of protein, calcium, iron, iodine, zinc, vitamins and more, seaweed is packed with essential nutrients that are highly prized in the kitchen and beneficial to our diet. Let yourself be tempted by a seaweed with a well-known taste: that of truffles.
"When you put sea truffle [called Vertebrata lanosa] in your mouth, the taste is surprising! There's quite a pronounced truffle flavor," explains Tamara Singer, co-founder of Lofoten Seaweed. Having grown up in New Zealand with a Japanese mother, she recounts that as a child, seaweed was present on almost every menu. The entrepreneur then moved to Norway, where she opened her store in Napp, on the Lofoten Islands, with Angelita Eriksen, the daughter of a fisherman born in the Norwegian village. Together with their team, they sell seaweed harvested in the Arctic both locally and online.
One of the foods for which they are renowned is Vertebrata lanosa. This truffle-flavored seaweed is hand-harvested at low tide in late autumn and early spring. Resembling pompons or a dark-red bushy beard, it turns yellow on contact with the sun. A delicate product, its appearance and taste change according to the weather, the season and the place where it's harvested.
A delicacy
While its benefits are manifold, its price is no match for truffles. 15 grams are sold for around 20 euros, or over 1,000 euros a kilo. But Tamara Singer moderates, "dried seaweed is used as a seasoning, like oregano, for example. A packet of a few grams is therefore more than sufficient for personal use. "If used sparingly, it can be mixed with salt, for example, to season certain dishes. Tamara Singer advises that seaweed should be consumed no more than six months after harvesting, to benefit from its full flavour. After that date, "the truffle's taste is less strong".
According to Singer, sea truffles are only found in the Arctic, in Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. In harvesting them for her store, Tamara Singer pays particular attention to the sustainability of this activity. "We're based in an old fishing village that has been deserted due to the disappearance of fish as a result of over-consumption. We want to continue the export industry we had, but we follow strict rules to respect the growth cycles. "Tamara Singer is convinced that seaweed is totally in line with the sustainable food trend we're all moving towards.
dry or fresh
While Lofoten Seaweed offers this seaweed in dried leaf form, it can also be cooked fresh or fermented. It can be used in the same way as white truffles. "Chef Mauro Colagreco was one of our first customers, offering sea truffles on the menu of his restaurant Ceto, in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin". The first
was the Under underwater restaurant in Lindesnes, Norway. Other gourmet addresses are now cooking Vertebrata lanosa in France and Europe. Also, "our seaweed has been used by the Norwegian team at the Bocuse d'Or and other competitions where chefs have stood on the podium", smiles Tamara Singer.
The specialist advises cooking dried seaweed in fat, "like butter, mayonnaise, or any other source of fat. "For optimal flavor, we suggest adding the seaweed at the end of cooking.
With a Chardonnay white wine, in an aioli, in a lamb tartar or with mushrooms... Sea truffles also go perfectly with skrei, Norwegian cod.
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