April 14 – the first ever National Laverbread Day – is fast approaching. Founded by Jonathan Williams, founder of the Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company and the award-winning street food outlet Café Mor, National Laverbread Day is all about celebrating seaweed – specifically laver, a seaweed that is common on the UK’s coastlines and is cooked up to make the Welsh delicacy, laverbread (a glutinous, dark green gloop that tastes delicious).
Jonathan’s business is built on a passion for laverbread, and seaweed in general, and he’s made it a mainstay of his menu at Café Mor for over a decade. Touring festivals and selling from his regular pitch at the spectacular Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, he has converted thousands to the pleasures of dishes such as laverbread breakfast baps and lobster rolls drenched in seaweed butter.
Now, with Café Mor soon to open at a permanent pub location – The Old Point House, a former pirates’ haunt reached across a tidal causeway on Angle, Pembrokeshire – he is working to get the whole of the UK cooking with this free, sustainable and nutritious ingredient.
Dozens of businesses have already signed up to host laverbread-themed events on the big day, and Jonathan will be serving laverbread-based dishes and giving away free laverbread samples at The Old Point House.
He chose April 14 as National Laverbread Day because it is the same day the Japanese celebrate “Mother of the Sea Day” in honour of Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker, whose research into the cultivation of porphyria seaweed led to a commercial breakthrough for the Japanese Nori (laver) industry.
“I’ve always been disappointed that it’s so rare to see laverbread on menus in the UK,” he says. “I’ve always felt it’s such a great ingredient, and I use it all the time at home. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t shouting about it. It’s something unique and, in an age of so many chain shops, stores and restaurants, it’s nice to have the opportunity to celebrate our culinary history, promote wild food and try to get people to do something a bit different.”
While laverbread is a traditional ingredient in a Welsh breakfast, served with bacon, eggs and often cockles, it’s enormously versatile and works beautifully in sauces, breads, soups and a huge array of dishes.
With that in mind, you’ll find five free recipes below to help people celebrate the first ever National Laverbread Day.
Where to buy laverbread:
While laverbread is relatively rare in shops outside Wales, it is available on Welsh markets, especially Cardiff and Swansea covered markets, direct from producers such as Selwyn’s, Parsons, Spencer at Gower Coast Foods, from most decent delis and independent food shops in Wales, and of course from The Pembrokeshire Beach Food Co.
Jonathan’s laverbread facts
- Although laver (porphyra seaweed) is found around Britain’s coastline, the production of laverbread is a primarily a Welsh tradition.
- Laver is harvested from rocks in the wilds of West Wales, which has the second largest tidal range in the world and takes the full force of the Atlantic storms.
- Not many other foods take as long as laverbread to cook (typically about 8 hours).
- No other food looks so unappealing after several hours of cooking.
- It is a powerhouse of nutrients, vitamins and minerals.
- It has been dubbed “future food” as it requires no land, freshwater, pesticides or fertilizers and can grow up to 5mm a day.
- Its versatility is only now being discovered in modern day cooking.
- It tastes sublime, or, as the Japanese say has “essence of deliciousness” – a satisfying, savoury umami flavour.
- It is the untamed mysterious lady of the seaweed world, constantly changing its mind as to where it grows and when it grows. I spend my days endlessly chasing it around the coastline.
- Laver has one of the strangest and most complicated life cycles: it can be both male and female, and one stage of its life it is neither. You could even call it the original non-binary life form.
Recipes
Pan fried sea bass with laverbread and dill sauce
Feeds 2
Ingredients
2 sea bass fillets
2 tbsp laverbread
50ml double cream
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 shallot, finely diced
150ml white wine
A handful of fresh dill, chopped
2 tbsp capers
Olive oil
A knob of butter
Salt and pepper
Method
- Score and season the skin of the sea bass fillets.
- Fry in olive oil, skin side down, for 3-4 minutes. Press down with a fish knife if it starts to curl.
- Turn over and cook for 1 minute, then remove from the pan.
- Add the shallot and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Don’t let it burn.
- Add the wine and let it bubble for a couple of minutes.
- Add the cream, laverbread, dill, butter and capers.
- Stir and heat gently until all combined.
- Serve the sauce with the seabass.
Laverbread Welsh rarebit
Feeds 2
Ingredients
150g mature Cheddar
A generous knob of butter
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp flour
2 tbsp beer
1 tbsp laverbread
Salt and black pepper
2-4 slices Sourdough depending on size.
Method
- Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the beer, laverbread, cheese, mustard, flour and Worcester sauce.
- Heat until you have a paste.
- Season to taste.
- Toast the sourdough.
- Spoon the cheese mixture onto the sourdough.
- Grill until golden and serve immediately.
Pea, Asparagus and laverbread soup
Feeds 4
Ingredients
1 medium onion, diced
2 large garlic cloves, crushed and sliced
1.25 litres vegetable stock
1 medium potato (about 150g), peeled and diced
100g peas
200g asparagus, chopped
2 tbsp laverbread
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Method
- Heat some olive oil in a large pan and cook the onion until soft.
- Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the stock and potato and cook until the potato is soft.
- Add the asparagus and peas and cook for a couple of minutes until the asparagus is soft.
- Blend.
- Stir in the laverbread, season, and serve with a swirl of cream if desired.
Cod with tomato and laverbread sauce
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 cod fillet steaks
3 sundried tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 red chillies depending on taste, deseeded and finely chopped
100ml water
1 medium onion, diced
Olive oil
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp tomato purée
2 tbsp laverbread
Salt and pepper
Method
- Heat some olive oil in a large, shallow, lidded pan and fry the onion until soft.
- Add the garlic, chilli and sundried tomatoes and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the water, tinned tomatoes, sugar, laverbread and tomato purée and heat until bubbling.
- Add the cod and cook for 6-8 minutes depending on the size of the steaks, until the flesh flakes easily.
- Serve with vegetables of your choice.
Traditional Laverbread Patties
Serves 2
Ingredients:
Laverbread (either from a shop or harvested by yourself) x 100g
Oats (large or medium or fine) 20g ish
Salt and Pepper to taste
Bacon fat (traditional or olive oil)
Method:
- Place your frying pan on a low-medium heat, and put either your bacon fat or oil in to warm up.
- While the fat is heating up, mix the laverbread in a bowl with your oats (Traditionally a fine grade oatmeal was used. I prefer the larger oats but this is personal taste), until you get a good consistent patty. If it’s too dry add more laverbread, or if it is too sticky, add more oats.
- Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Use a tablespoon and drop the laverbread and oat mix into the frying pan and shape it with the spoon into a round patty around 0.5mm thick
- Cook for around 5 minutes on each side or until golden and crispy.
- Serve hot and enjoy
