Recipe for Carrigeen Moss Pudding

WE so love Carrigeen moss, it is bursting with goodness but it can be dire — if too much carrigeen is used it will be stiff and really unpalatable.

This is my mother-inlaw, Myrtle Allen’s recipe. It’s the best and most delicious recipe I know for carrigeen. We find that visitors to the country are fascinated by the idea of a dessert made with seaweed and they just love it. The name means little rock in Gaelic.

The late Fred Dawes taught me how to forage for and harvest Carrigeen moss. He picked it off the rocks in the little cove of Ballyandreen in east Cork after the spring tides.

Fred then spread it out on the bouncy grass on the cliffs where it is washed by the rain and bleached by the sun. He turned it every few days and when it was ready he stored it. Carrigeen keeps almost indefinitely and is one of the most valuable of all our wild foods loaded with vitamins, minerals and trace elements, particularly iodine. Another ‘cool food’ with a story — it helps our metabolism to work to its optimum and so breaks down fats while giving us lots of strength and energy.

Serves 6

8g (1/4oz) cleaned, well-dried Carrigeen moss (1 semi-closed fistful)

850ml (11/2pint) whole milk

1 tablespoon castor sugar

1 egg, preferably free-range

½ teaspoon vanilla extract or a vanilla pod

Accompaniment: Compote of fruit in season or soft brown sugar and softly-whipped cream.

Soak the Carrigeen in a little bowl of tepid water for 10 minutes. It will swell and increase in size. Strain off the water and put the carrigeen into a saucepan with milk and vanilla pod if used. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently with the lid on for 20 minutes.

At that point and not before, separate the egg, put the yolk into a bowl, add the sugar and vanilla essence and whisk together for a few seconds, then pour the milk and carrigeen moss through a strainer into the egg yolk mixture whisking all the time. The carrigeen will now be swollen and exuding jelly.

Rub all this jelly through the strainer and beat it into the milk with the sugar, egg yolk and vanilla essence if used. Test for a set in a saucer as one would with gelatine. Whisk the egg white stiffly and fold or fluff it in gently. It will rise to make a fluffy top. Serve chilled with soft brown sugar and cream and or with a fruit compote such as poached rhubarb or green gooseberry and elderflower.