Although seaweed has strange taste, from it, we can make various dishes that are very good for health.
Seaweed with tofus
Seaweed has many mineral substances, which are very helpful for our health and beauty. Seaweed has a green color, which looks very cool and eye – catching. It grows either in seawater or in brackish water. In the sea, seaweed usually grows on the coral reefs or on the cliffs. It can even grow in the deep-water stratum, if there is enough light for photosynthesis.
Many dishes could be made from seaweed. We can use it to sew with bones, dry with shrimp or pork, make salad or cook sweetened porridge. We can also salt seaweed to keep it fresh and then cook it and use as a kind of tea to help reducing our body’s heat in hot summer days.
If we know how to make, the seaweed would not be stinking but very crunchy and easy to eat. When we take the seaweed from the sea, it has a light green, quite stinking and there is a lot of coral grit in its root. Therefore, we have to soak seaweed in rice water for at least one night to remove all the grit.
In other to reduce the stinking smell, we can use vinegar or lemon. When we do so, it will turn into ivory – white. Then, we can use it to make gruel or agar.
It is very simple to cook the soup of seaweed and flank meat. To make this dish, beside seaweed and flank meat, we also need tofu, ginger and green onion. Firstly, sew the flank meat until it is well – cooked. Then, put seaweed and tofu into the pot. The soup looks very attractive with green and white color.
Seaweed cooks with tofu is also a delicious dish. Cut the tofu into square pieces, and then use a knife to pierce the part inside out. Next, cut the seaweed into small pieces and divide it into two parts. One used for making the sauce and the other used to stuff into the tofu.
Grind the meat and mix it with seaweed, add some green onion and some spices such salt, pepper and sugar. Then, stuff this mixture into the tofu that we have already pierced and steam them.
Making the sauce by cooking the water with some fish sauce, pepper, sugar and a little tapioca starch. When the mixture boils, put seaweed into the pot and stir until it is viscid. Lay the steamed tofu on a plate and pour the sauce over, then put some coriander on and use when the dish is still hot. The fragrance of coriander and seaweed mix with the greasy taste of tofu make the dish taste so delicious.
Dishes made from seaweed are very plentiful. Each dish has particular tastes. By eating seaweed, our body would absorb iodine, vitamin K, B2 and some mineral such as magnesium, iron, calcium, a large amount of lignan (a group of chemical compounds found in plants).
These substances can prevent cancer cell and goiter. Not only that, seaweed can help to strengthen thyroid gland and cure some diseases that are concerned with heart and blood. With so many usages, seaweed has become very popular and has been preferred widely.
