Sunday, March 22, 2015

Fresh Maine sea urchin



It isn't every day you come across these babies, not even here in Maine. Virtually all sea urchins that are harvested in these waters get processed on their way to the sushi bar. Which is fine, because I do love me some uni. But I also enjoy wrestling with nature's creatures from time to time, and so there was no way I was going to pass up a chance to mess with these. Four of them, actually.


In case you're interested, this is what a Maine sea urchin looks like from what I suppose you might call "the business end." The small circular area in the center is its mouth, actually.


I'm not smart enough to figure out a way to cut open and photograph a sea urchin at the same time, and so you'll have to settle for this after shot.


Big surprise, I decided to go with a pasta dish. (I know, who'da thunk?) That's a big hunk of butter, some olive oil, a shallot and a garlic clove.


Once the shallots and garlic softened, I turned off the heat, waited a couple minutes, and then added the urchin (a little lemon zest and/or fresh parsley are recommended at this point too).


The idea here is to not cook the urchin, but rather let the pasta warm it. And so once the spaghetti was cooked I added it and some of the pasta water to the pan and very gently mixed things together.


Definitely one of the richest things I've eaten in quite a while. Which is saying something because, well, you see how I eat. Delicious, though; silky and smooth in a way that few things are.

Go ahead, live a little!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are such an adventurous cook! Where did you get those urchins? As you say, most go to Japan. I've never even seen them in the fish markets here in Maine.

Mister Meatball said...

Harbor Fish had a few that day I stopped in. Rarely see them there.