Pickled Baby Bull Kelp Recipe
I love bull kelp! Not only is it beautiful, it's the fastest growing plant in ALL THE LAND. It can be chopped and tossed into soups. Roasted, dried, and ground into flakes for cooking. You can also use it to wrap food for cooking on coals. You probably have heard about seaweeds being insanely good for you. A cursory search online will give you a good overview of the many minerals and vitamins found in bull kelp and other sea vegetables. I just love my greens, and this green is FREE.
Bull kelp is best edible in the spring, harvested directly from a beach after a storm, or caught floating freely with a net from your boat. While it's edible during its entire lifecycle, bull kelp is best when it's young. Look for the smaller, tender bulbs, rather than those ginormous bull whips that we all grab and stab and play with at the beach. I like to harvest a bit far out from ports or cities, to avoid waste containments and pollution.
This recipe was combined from a couple of sources. A former dock mate, Gail aboard S/V Destiny, gave me her recipe for bull kelp pickles (thanks Gail!) I also used the "Pickle Primer" recipe from Good and Cheap, which is one of my most favorite cook books of all time! It's full of practical and affordable recipes, intended for "people with limited income, particularly on a $4/day food stamps budget." It's a great mix of creative food concoctions and staples alike.
I really enjoyed getting creative with how I sliced and diced the veggies for this pickle. I tend to like thin cuts that will readily absorb the pickle juice. I used a vegetable ribbon peeler that came with a spiralizer. It's really just a plastic peeler, but it cuts the carrot into buttery thin ribbons. So nice.
You can also play around with the spices—omit some, add some, just use whatever is in your cupboard. Or just use a premixed pickling spice from the store.
This recipe yields 1 to 2 glass quart jars (or any leftover jar with a lid will do.)
INGREDIENTS
Veggies:
1 to 4 baby bull kelps (depending on how "kelpy" you want your pickle. I used 1 for mine, and could have used way more.)
1 to 4 carrots (again, you can choose how much carrot vs. kelp you want)
1 quarter onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves (sprouted garlic is lovely)
Brine:
2 cups distilled white vinegar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon dill seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried dill leaves
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds.
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Several shakes of chilly flake
1 bay leaf
Step 1 — Rinse the bull kelp in cool water just before pickling. You can store the bull kelp for a day or so in sea water in your fridge, if you don't get right to pickling it the day you harvest. I wouldn't keep it longer than a day though.
Step 2 — Cut the vegetables however you like! Cut the bull kelp bulbs into little rings, from the tip of the bulb all the way down to the end of the tail. Any amount of the bull kelp leaves (I used 1/3), rolling them and then slicing the roll. The carrots were cut into thin ribbons with plastic blade peeler. You could also use a regular peeler, or thinly slice carrot rings with a knife, or a mandolin, or .... ?! Cooks choice.
Step 3 — Fill the jars with vegetables, layering however you like. Get creative with layering, or just stuff em' in!
Step 4 — Make the brine by putting all the brine ingredients into a pot. Bring to a boil, then turn down low and simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until you loose patience. Cover so that the intense vinegar smell doesn't everyone in the boat pass out.
Step 5 — Pour the brine into the jars over the bull kelp and veggies.
Step 6 — Let cool to room temperature on your counter.
Step 7 — Once cooled, put in fridge and leave to "pickle" for 4 days to 2 weeks. Just keep tasting them to see what level of soaking suits your fancy. We started eating ours after 4 days and they were great! The thicker your vegetable cut, the longer you'll want to let them soak.
Step 8 — Enjoy! They must be stored in the fridge as they have not been processed for long term preserving.
Even toddler Jude liked the pickled bull kelp! In fact, he would only eat the bull kelp in the pickle mix, so next time we are going to make a batch that is 90% kelp and 10% carrots and other veg. I'm also excited to try fermenting bull kelp.
