Add spicy mineral truffle flavour to your cold martini for an intense oceanic hit with this incredible seaweed.

Pepper dulse is a small, beautifully fronded, reddish-brown seaweed found around the coastline of the British Isles (and further afield in Europe).

The flavour of fresh pepper dulse is crave-worthy. I can think about it long after the season has ended.

However, it’s very hard to find, it tends to grow sparsely, you have to be very mindful to only take a small amount AND it’s only properly in season around December to late spring.

So, like all bounty from the sea, it must be appreciated and treated with respect. If you’re going to abuse it, you don’t deserve it.

When you gather the seaweed you must use scissors. Pulling the seaweed reduces its ability to regrow and will leave you with sand and grit in your harvest. You can use a knife for some seaweeds, like kelp, but pepper dulse grows too close to the rock and a knife is still liable to tug on the roots.

I collected a very small handful. Bear in mind that a little goes a long way. I took it home and separated the fronds to inspect them for detritus. Unlike most seaweeds, I don’t wash pepper dulse in cold, fresh water. I want to preserve as much of its flavour and the saltiness of the sea as possible.

I chopped up the fronds and added them to a glass jar with gin to infuse. You can also do this with vodka. I would recommend around one frond per every 25ml gin/vodka.

It doesn’t take a lot of time for the seaweed to impart its flavour. The gin was fresh from the freezer and subsequently very cold, which possibly slowed down the infusion time but after an hour it was already pretty pungent with infused oceanic truffle. Otherwise, you could infuse the seaweed at around noon and it would be ready for the violet hour that evening. Keep it in the fridge while it’s infusing so it’s nice and cool to add to a martini when it’s cocktail hour.

Don’t let the seaweed infuse for too long. It starts to taste bitter after around two days.

When it’s time to pour, add 2 teaspoons of the infused gin added to a classic martini (without lemon or olive). You could leave it without a garnish, you could garnish it with one of the infused fronds, or you could use a fresh frond kept aside from your earlier foraging.

You can also adjust the amount of infused gin that you add to taste. You might want to add a lot more to really experience the distinct flavour. If you do this, I would recommend keeping the infused gin in the freezer for a couple of hours to help keep your martini cold.

I specifically recommend refraining from using lemon or olive or any other kind of garnish with this type of martini. You want to inhale that unadulterated pepper dulse hit with every sip. It’s really quite something in a martini, even after only an hour of infusion. Mineral flavours, mild pungency like garlic, an almost buttery or nutty umami, all tied up with peppery deliciousness from your nose to the tip of your tongue – it’s really quite something.

What food to pair this with?

The peppery umami really whets your appetite for some hearty protein. I would recommend serving it with different kinds of meat, such as prosciutto or good quality salami.

Otherwise something plain such as fries, roast potatoes or crisps (potato chips) to give you a crunchy, savoury but understated background to the seaweed which is the main act. Don’t serve anything with truffle or you will miss the special flavour of the pepper dulse.

I can also recommend a good steak with a nice glass of malbec for a meal that follows this drink. You can also try it with other forms of seaweed and lamb. Please see my post on Seven Crofts Gin for some ideas.

Enjoy!