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« Is Paris An Airplane? March 19, 2008
 Last week, I was making my weekly ice cream deliveries to the vendors at my local market, which was especially necessary since my freezer was super jam-packed and begging for relief. (Which you may have seen when I inadvertently bared-all in my kitchen slide show.) When I stopped by to drop off a pint to my pal Régis, who sells salt at the market, I immediately honed in on a big basket he had heaped full of tiny sacks of bright green seaweed-flecked salt. He opened one, waved it under my nose, then handed it to me to play around with at home. The first thing I did was add it to some eggs I was scrambling in the center of some fried rice, and it was excellent. Then I thought it would be delicious sprinkled over cold soba, thin Japanese buckwheat noodles. And it was. So I kept going and made a jeon, a big Korean pancake, which was another hit, too. I'm on a roll! Then pulled out a batch of cole slaw I'd made the day before, added a few bits of it, and it completely came alive with flavor. The crisp Savoy cabbage, along with the crunch of roasted peanuts, black sesame seeds, and a few slippery bits of avocado played off nicely against the salted seaweed.   I'm planning to smuggle some Chex back from Texas next month as I think this salt would make an excellent base for some homemade Chex party mix, whose appeal may take some explaining for my Parisian friends. But I've been serving these little cookies along with aperitifs before dinner to much acclaim. Although I used seaweed salt, you could use flaky sea salt and add a handful of finely-chopped olives or nuts to the dough, which I imagine would be pretty terrific as a pre-dinner bite as well.
But if seaweed's not your thing, feel free to play around with other naturally-flavored salts. Cinnamon and spicy red pepper both sound good to me.
2. If using an electric mixer, scrape down the sides, then add the olive oil and flour until smooth. 3. On the countertop, roll the dough into two logs, each about 8-inch (20 cm) long. Wrap each in plastic and chill until firm enough to slice, about 1 hour. 4. To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 300F (150C). Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper then slice the cookies on the scant side of ¼-inch (½cm) thick. Place them evenly-spaced on the prepared baking sheet. 5. Sprinkle a couple of grains of seaweed salt over the top of each cookie (mine was pretty coarse so I crushed it a bit first), then bake for 12-14 minutes, or until slightly-firm. Cool before serving. Storage: The cookies are best the day they're made, but can be stored overnight in an airtight container. The dough can be chilled for up to 5 days, or frozen for 2 months.
Fleur de sel (Amazon) Which Salt is Best? (Slate) Comments Most intriguing:) But the cookies look really pretty with those black and green flecks, so who knows:) Posted by Pille at March 19, 2008 8:19 AM Fabulous ... puts me in mind of salted caramels, another brilliant sweet/salt combination Joanna Posted by Joanna at March 19, 2008 8:25 AM Fascinating...and kinda topical, too, almost...seaweed is a traditional staple Irish food, only a wee bit late for St Paddy's! Posted by Claire at March 19, 2008 8:32 AM You had me at Chex Mix. Posted by Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy at March 19, 2008 8:54 AM oooh! I really really want to try these! I love sweet and salty things, and I love surprising desserts! Posted by bitchincamero at March 19, 2008 10:24 AM Pille: Your 'dark' seaweed comment makes me think these cookies would be good packed with a lot of black pepper in place of the seaweed salt. Thanks for the inspiration! bic: I haven't tried serving these for dessert, but don't see any reason why not. Sara: I love Chex Mix, but am not fond of all those dubious ingredients in the 'seasoning salt'. I think this would make an excellent swap. Posted by David at March 19, 2008 11:39 AM Now that's a surprising ingredient for cookies! (Did you see Alpineberry's matcha cookies? That's another one I wouldn't have imagined.) The pancake sounds especially excellent. Posted by Kitt at March 19, 2008 11:52 AM Oh! I think that looks like furikake? I've made a Chex/Crispix mix with furikake (and butter, oil, sugar, and corn syrup) and it is indeed delicious. Posted by C(h)ristine at March 19, 2008 11:54 AM This is why I read your wonderful blog! If someone gave me a bag of seaweed flecked salt, not that that is a possiblity here but, suspending reality... I would probably put it on Top Ramen. Your imagination with food is incredible - Cookies. If I could eat a blog.... Posted by Beth at March 19, 2008 12:55 PM YUM! In Hawaii, the only kind of chex mix we ate had furikake as the essential ingredient. I bet the seaweed salt will also taste great with popcorn & arare (rice crackers)-- another popular hawaii treat with furikake. Posted by Jeanie at March 19, 2008 1:31 PM Is the texture like a shortbread? I'm thrown by the powdered sugar and egg yolk. Arizmendi Bakery here in San Francisco makes great black pepper shortbreads once in a while, as well as cardamom shortbreads. They're really really good with Guinness ice cream! Maybe I'll have to see how seaweed and Guinness go together. Totally different topic: do you ever make ice cream with nut butters, aside from the obvious pistachio paste? I just read about a walnut maple ice cream that sounded amazing, and there's some definite synchronicity going on because I just picked up some roasted hazelnut butter that is quite tasty, but surprisingly liquid even at fridge temperatures; as ice cream it might not be too firm. I realize now that Nutella is probably only as firm as it is because of the chocolate fats and solids. Posted by Steve G at March 19, 2008 3:07 PM See, this? This is why I love you. So innovative. Posted by Dick Cheney at March 19, 2008 8:53 PM Tres interessant! I've never seen seaweed salt before which surprises me because here in Toronto we have so many great Asian food stores and specialty salt is so popular here now. I recently did a salt tasting with my chef pals and it was really interesting and inspiring. (In fact, I did a couple of articles about it as a result). The most versatile and interesting of the salts I tried was Salish smoked salt sold by Artisan sea salts. Very intense flavor and true smokey goodness! If you sprinkle a little over pork as it's resting, the effect is divine! Posted by Dana Mccauley at March 19, 2008 9:25 PM Dang it, I was going to make seafood cookies. You beat me to it! Posted by Jessica "Su Good Sweets" at March 19, 2008 10:53 PM Interesting. Would they match with beer? Posted by barbara at March 19, 2008 11:40 PM barbara: Am not sure about beer, although if you're the kind of person that does the salt-lime thing with beer, they might. But I can tell you for sure that they go very well with rosé! Dana: I don't think you'll find this anywhere else since my friend makes it himself. Asian markets do carry furikake, which is a really terrific condiment. Steve: I added an egg yolk to the dough since it was a bit dry and I wanted it to be a bit more golden. I think this cookie would be fantastic with a whole lot of ground black pepper in place of the seaweed salt. I do have a recipe for Peanut Butter Ice Cream and Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream in my ice cream book, but I don't use nut pastes in general (like pistachio paste) since people can't easily get them. Clotilde made a Nutella Ice Cream, but swapped out a more natural alternative to Nutella. (I loved one of the English descriptions on the Jean Hervé site: "We use non-unfattened cocoa...") Posted by David at March 20, 2008 3:17 AM I wonder how your salt vendor guy uses it? Those perfect square salt crystals! It is definitely the most beautiful sea salt mixture I've ever seen. (And your cole slaw looks pretty gorgeous, too.) I'm going to try to make my own with Celtic sea salt and wakame and dulse. Thank you both for the inspiration! Posted by elarael at March 20, 2008 3:45 AM what about making cookies with Bordier's beurre aux algues? Posted by basil at March 20, 2008 3:59 AM Glad you weren't joking about the chex mix! Like the way you think. Posted by Kim at March 20, 2008 8:48 AM I guess I'll have to hop a plane to Paris then to buy this salt from your pal. : ) Thanks for saving me from traisping the Asian markets here in fruitless dismay. Posted by Dana McCauley at March 20, 2008 12:46 PM Sorry if my post is a bit off topic: I just wanted to thank you for this site! Thanks for sharing great recipes with us and for being so entertaining! Having only discovered your site recently I have only just managed to try the Friendship bars recipe and they are yummy. One person in the comments was after an edgeless brownie pan, well... the nearest I can find are these which are great if a bit pricey: http://alansilverwood.co.uk/id21.html (and no I don't have shares or anything!) Thanks again Posted by Francoise at March 20, 2008 6:19 PM Thank you so much for these great ideas! A friend brought me back a bag of this seaweed salt from France, and outside of sprinkling it on steamed edamame, I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Great! Posted by Hilla at March 21, 2008 10:01 AM yumMEEE! In Malaysia and Singapore (where I'm from) we have these traditional wafer biscuits called Kuih Kapit, or Love Letters. served over Chinese New Year. They're the most delicate crispy wafers, folded into quarters for extra crunch and a modern variation includes .... seaweed! Here's a recipe for kuih kapit, in case you have extra seaweed salt lying around http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=305 :( Cxxx Posted by Christine at March 22, 2008 7:42 AM Sounds wonderful. cheers Posted by haapi at March 22, 2008 9:29 AM The cookies look marvellous, I'd not have thought to use the seaweed salt in that manner. One correction - 'jeon' (전) doesn't mean pancake but is a generic term meaning 'battered and fried'. Though the most well-known 전 is the spring onion & seafood variety which is commonly made like a pancake (though the 'traditional' method is different) and thus gives rise to the incorrect understanding of the term, there are also 전 that are battered and fried white fish fillets and tenderized pork cutlets which are more in fitting with the actual meaning of the term. Posted by Ellie @ Kitchen Wench at March 23, 2008 9:46 PM Ellie: Thanks! I'd read English translations of it as 'pajon', although in the link that I gave to the Korean women, it was titled 'jeon'. They say Korean is one of the hardest languages to learn—so I'd better stick to English (and a little French, too.) btw; Love the Korean html! haapi: Am not sure about gomashio, but it's worth a try. The sesame seeds are kinda too big and too 'present' for such a little buttery cookie. Posted by David at March 24, 2008 3:19 AM I never would have thought I'd say this about seaweed cookies, but those look good! Posted by Hillary at March 25, 2008 5:56 PM Elizabeth Andoh would be very unhappy with your terminology: sea vegetable cookies! What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. - Emerson. For Zen students, a weed is a treasure. Oh, hardy flower, disdained as weed, Posted by Elissa at March 26, 2008 9:39 PM oh baby. that is some luscious seaweed salt. Posted by steamy kitchen at March 26, 2008 10:00 PM Hi Elissa: Hmmm, the packet is labeled fleur de sel aux algues, which translated to 'flower of salt with seaweed'—although he also sells packets of just the green stuff, labeled laitue de la mer, or 'lettuce of the sea'. I should forward this to Elizabeth and see what she has to say! And I think I'd have to agree with Suzuki, weeds can definitely be treasures. The poems are lovely, too. Posted by David at March 27, 2008 3:16 AM That salt looks fab - and your description of the coleslaw made me drool! Love the cookies too - I always like recipes that you can fiddle with and change the flavours. Btw, did you ever see my post on our London salt tasting a while back? We had a blast and it's astonishing how different these gourmet salts can be: http://www.cooksister.com/2006/11/london_food_blo.html Posted by Jeanne at March 27, 2008 10:29 AM They look stunning, so tasty and pretty. I might give these a go using some dulse instead. Posted by Kitchen Goddess at March 28, 2008 5:40 AM Post a comment |
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