Sea Moss Farina

 This is one of those recipes where I hunted high and low for a specific ingredient. I could not find Irish Moss anywhere in health food stores, so I finally settled for Alaria seaweed, which I knew we would also use in Miso soup. Seaweed/sea moss, same diff, right? I can substitute one for another. Right? Ummm, wrong. And I found out the hard way, since I made the recipe and noticed that the alaria did not appear to be acting as a thickening agent in the milk mixture. 

Back I went to the health food store, and explained my dilemma to a very helpful staff person. She said, have you tried Agar-Agar? I said no, and I didn't even know what it looked like. She handed me a package, which is essentially Irish Moss reduced to teeny-tiny tapioca-sized pebbles, which acts as a thickening agent in puddings. The recipe does suggest agar-agar, if you can't get the sea moss, but I was focused on getting the "authentic" ingredient.

Phew, this did the trick! The picture I took does not have any fruit on top, but you can either add fruit or (my inspiration, for breakfast today) sprinkle nutmeg on top. It is a lovely, mildly sweet (honey is the sweetener) milk pudding. Next time I make it, I think I'll try maple syrup as the sweetener. 



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