Have you ever cooked with kelp?
The Japanese call it kombu and they use it to make dashi stock, the backbone of many traditional dishes. The Koreans refer to it as dashima (pronounced “dah-sheema”) and it’s readily available in grocery stores like Komart in North Strathfield (providing you know what to ask for).
There are both dried and fresh salted versions available – I found this bag in the Komart fridge section for about $2.50…
It was heavily salted, so needed a good rinse and an hour’s soaking time before use…
I squeezed the water out and chopped up the prepared seaweed, stirring a handful into my sourdough…
It was a huge hit with the boys and the neighbours, with the kombu adding a little bit of salt and a subtle umami kick to the loaves…
Here’s a second batch that I made last weekend. This time I added more kombu – 100g (soaked and drained weight) to my four kilo batch of sourdough…
The leftovers made spectacular croutons…
Kombu/dashima is more readily available in dried form, which rehydrates brilliantly for use in stocks and soups…
My clever hubby tried grinding up a little of the dried seaweed in the spice grinder with flossy sea salt (50/50 by weight) and ended up with this delicious blend. I’ve been sprinkling it on everything from focaccias to steaks – it adds flavour with less actual salt…
Do you cook with kombu? I’d love to know what you do with it!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I can almost taste your loaf…looks perfect! Ive never tried kombu. Thanks for introducing it to me as it looks like a lovely ingredient.
What a great idea, so clever of you to think of adding seaweed to your sourdough. Thank you for sharing.
wonderfully fresh idea. Wish I could snitch a taste, it looks so good.
I have some as part of a dried mixture to add to soups. I’ve soaked it and used it in miso soup but never thought to use it bread. Interesting.
I only use it in delicious Miso Soup and sprinkle it through rice and some Pasta dishes for a nice little ZING ZANG !!
Yummers! I gotta up my game. :-)
(Although we did do a pretty tasty falafel birthday lunch for my mother-in-law with a bunch of hummus and other dipping sauces today.)
Bake on! Maz.
What a great a idea to add it to your sourdough mix. I’ll have to give it a go. There is a signature dish at Tetsuya’s, the Ocean Trout Confit, that uses konbu as a finishing touch. I’ve made the dish at home and used a high speed blender to blend up dried konbu into a fine powder that you then sprinkle on top. Delicious! Cath
That’s v clever – love the idea of reducing salt by using seaweed. I used to spend all my pocket money on seaweed when I was a kid as my treat for the week – this could be my adult version?!
Did you still add the regular amount of salt to the dough (18g/1kg flour) or did you reduce it?
Nope, I keep the same amount!
How interesting – my daughter loves seaweed rice crackers – wonder if she would like it in bread. I’ve only had the dried kombu – for soup stocks mainly. Would this work in bread if soaked? Your row of loaves looks so impressive and delicious
Sounds amazing, I think I’ll be able to get this easily when I’m back in Bexhill in a week or so!
When I saw the title my first thought was that you were adding kombucka to your bread. Lol I have never heard of kombu, but your loaves and salt mixture look delicous.
What a great idea! Clever.
I can always count on you to introduce me to something new, kombu looks very interesting and I love the ways you’ve ground it up with the flaky salt, amazing! I am in need of heading downtown to the Kensington Market (China Town) where I need to buy some Japanese ingredients so this is now on my list!
Visiting Ireland and the local farmers’ market had a sourdough and dulse (seaweed) bread which was lovely and needed nothing more than the local butter to make it a treat. I have been hunting the dulse/dillisk in stores and finally found some – several local cookbooks mention a carrot and dillisk loaf I want to try. The bag of Irish Kombu seaweed also from a local butcher/fishmonger looks quite similar to the Dulse which is the traditionally foraged kelp here. Sometimes added to their wonderful seafood chowder. ..
Love your row of beautiful loaves! I’m just getting back into my baking routine and last night I started on the overnight dough resulting in two nice loaves baked early this morning. Haven’t cut into them yet but they look pretty good.
This is actually a fantastic idea. We have all this leftover kombu from making dashi stock and we don’t know what to do with it…. this way it won’t go to waste. Will try!
I usually make soup with this! so yummy. Especially in winter
I thought of you the other day when I drove down from the Upper Hunter Valley to Sydney and stopped in Chatswood with its maze of Asian stores and bought some Wakame which I have become somewhat addicted to and I’m told it has wonderful health benefits as well
About to try my first Sour Dough but have still to locate in this badly equipped (. Food wise ) town , the High Protein flour … I’ll check Woolies tomorrow as Coles don’t sell it .
Hope you are enjoying the long weekend … Probably slaving , with love over a hot oven .. producing your gorgeous looking loaves etc
This is such a great blog .. you are a WonderWoman in all areas
Kiss x🌺🐨
Sorry I’m so late onto this, but loved the post – thank you. The bread looks wonderful and I’m sure was a delight to eat. I’ve never used Kombu in bread. I have used dulce flakes – it seems to suit sourdough spelt – and I remember making some spelt-brown rice-dulce loaves a while back. I think you have inspired me to return down that path and try some Kombu. Thank you!