How to clean a sea urchin before cooking is tricky business. Keep reading to learn about some handy tips on how to manage this with ease.

Sea urchins are found in all oceans, they are globular creatures, quite small but spiny. The outer skin reminds me of a hedgehog, in fact the word “urchin” is indeed the old name for a hedgehog.  They are typically found in dark colors of purple, red, brown, green and olive. Sea urchins are eaten as food in various parts of the world. They are most popular in Japan where they are referred to as “Uni” and can retail for as much as $450 a kg. The ovaries of the sea urchin are considered as a delicacy in many parts of the world. In New Zealand they are traditionally eaten raw.

One really wonders who thought of eating a sea urchin, it does not look like the most edible food item at first glance but owing to its rich taste it has become a favorite with a lot of sea food lovers.

Tips

• The best place to find fresh sea urchin is to visit a Korean or Japanese market. The key to figuring out if the sea urchins are fresh or not is to check their spines. The more rigid the spines, more fresh are the urchins. It is important that you store these carefully in your refrigerator, make sure they are covered with a damp towel.

• Take a pair of scissors, make sure they have been washed and cleaned thoroughly before use and then take these to cut a round hole on the top. The scissors need to be small and sharp; perhaps try using the pair from your manicure kit or men’s grooming kit.

• Before you proceed to the next step, prepare a mix of onion, lemon juice, sherry, olive oil and some coriander in a bowl. Keep this mix ready to soak the sea urchins.

• Use a small spoon, one that can easily fit through the round opening that you just cut with the scissors. Scoop out the “tongues” and quickly rinse the sea urchins under cold water. After rinsing, place them in the bowl with the mixture and let it soak in there for a good half hour. This allows the sea urchin to soak in all those flavors and herbs.

• In the meantime it would be a good idea to get the bread toasted and ready, you can brush it with the remains of the marinade or just use simple olive oil. Pop it into an oven grill and get it brown and toasty on both sides.

• Once the bread is ready, take the sea urchins out of the marinade and place on top of the bread and you have your dish ready to eat.

So as you can see, how to clean a sea urchin was not really that hard, the trick is really to know what you’re doing and how to do it. You can easily find different recipes for the marinade on the web and experiment with different flavors and tastes.

Image Credit - wikipedia.org, ifoodtv