Royal kombu

Kombu royal

What it is

Breton harvesters sell Saccharina latissima as kombu royal, though it is a different species from the Japanese kelp — sugar kelp, named for the mannitol that dries to a white bloom on the blade. France drew up a legal list of seaweeds permitted as vegetables at the start of the 1990s, and this was among the first on it.

In the kitchen

A blade dropped in with dried beans or lentils softens the skins and shortens the cooking. Salted needs a rinse and thirty seconds' blanching; dried wants a long infusion below a simmer, never a boil, which turns it bitter and slick.

Goes with

White beans Cod Butter Potato Mussel Lentils Scallop

Same species

Gagome kombu Kombu Ma-kombu Tororo kombu

In season alongside

Japanese abalone Brown crab Cuttlefish Gyokuro Hake John Dory

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