Pepper Dulse

Black Gold - pepper dulse powder

Earlier this summer a cook-off of Celtic chefs was organised in the nearby town of Skibbereen. The chefs “competed” in showing off their local cuisine, whilst utilising the famed ingredients of West Cork. John was involved in presenting the programme, and I enthusiastically volunteered myself as a forager, in case any of the chefs should wish to be supplied with produce from the wilder side of West Cork. One of the chef’s requests intrigued me greatly. It was from the chef who has done more than any other, I think, to represent Scottish cooking, Roy Brett from Ondine Restaurant. Roy asked me for dried pepper dulse powder.

It was a struggle to get the powder ready, because the plants were small and time was limited. I supplied him with a rather soggy, clumpy version. Next year I’ll be better organised. In fact, he won the competition with his famous dish of roasted seafood - which, I happen to know, was tossed in West Cork pepper dulse.

Pepper dulse has a taste that can only be described as intense. Round here it presents itself in Burgundy colours, but there are places on the shoreline where it can be quite greeny-yellow. It’s a diminutive seaweed that grows on rocks in the middle and lower shore. You find it between the wracks, well above the kelps.

For the past year I have been watching seaweeds closely, as part of an enjoyable project I’ve been working on for Atlantic Sea Kayaking. They are putting together a seaweed foraging tour package, and I’ve been watching and learning in parallel with them, both of us recognising the untapped wealth of nature that is just on the edge of our county.

This week the pepper dulse was better than I’ve ever seen it, vivid purple, spongier than usual, glossy indeed, and with a more obvious profile.

The seasonal aspect of seaweed has been one of the things I’ve learned over the last year. None of the books really focus on it, but I’ve discovered that while pepper dulse is great in November, the quite similar looking seaweed, carragheen, which often grows just below it, is now too small to make into any sort of a concoction. Though I was impressed last winter, with Carmel Somers of Good Things Restaurant using it at this infant stage very finely diced in a risotto.

I know one thing though, there is no commercial prospect for pepper dulse. It took hours to paddle out and collect one small bag of it. And, after a few hours drying and then grinding, one tiny jar of this black gold was all I got.

Black gold is a good description of it, the taste is amazing: peppery, fishy, salty, umami. If you love seaweed, you’ll adore pepper dulse. Don’t add it to a seaweed powder mix, if you’re making one for stock or salt - it will dominate everything. Use it sparingly (you’ll want to anyway, you’ll have so little of it). We cooked skate and pepper dulse fish cakes with our first batch. Next time, I think peppered tuna with the dulse added to a pepper mix, would work really well too.

Skate, Pepper Dulse & Thyme Fish Cakes

This is adapted from a little book of recipes we produced with Martin Shanahan - Irish Seafood Cookery.

250g skate
325g mashed potato
pepper dulse powder
salt
fresh thyme leaves
coarse polenta
cooking oil

Steam the fish until just cooked, allow to cool, peel off the skin and then flake the flesh from the central bone. Gently mix together with the potato, the thyme and the dulse. Season with salt. Wet your hands, then form into fish cakes. Dip the cakes into polenta. Dust of the excess, and place in the fridge to rest. Cook each fish cake for about four minutes per side.