Cooking With Sea Asparagus
I went to an unfamiliar greenmarket today and had the pleasure of meeting a whole new group of farmers. One vendor was not a farmer at all, but a forager. In fact, he has an entire network of foragers throughout Canada who trade products, enabling a far longer season than would otherwise exist (the man still has fiddleheads at his disposal!) While his mileage greatly outnumbered that of the other farmers at market, I felt that his overall carbon footprint was probably comparable. Afterall, he hasn’t cleared any forest to plant his crop, or used petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides, trucked in soil and feed or used mechanized harvesting tools. Considering this, I didn’t mind helping myself to his bounty.
I was immediately intrigued by a match-stick thin vegetable that looked like a bean with tentacles. The vendor informed me that this was called ’sea asparagus’ and handed over a sample. When I popped it into my mouth, I was immediately taken with its crispiness despite the wilting heat, but was subsequently distracted by a gush of sea water flavor. It was provocative, but overwhelming. How could this ingredient blend in a dish?
