urchins

In Greece we get 2 types of urchins. The BLACK ones with long spikes, round body, that are more abundant and the RED/BROWN/GREEN/PURPLE/YELLOW ones that have relatively shorter less dense spikes, a more ovular body, and that often cover themselves up with seeweed, moss, or plant bits.

The BLACK ones are not edible in my parts. The challenge for the rookie urchin harvester comes from being able to tell apart the edible urchins from the Black ones. Some say that the black ones are the males while all the rest of the colours are the females of the same species.

Next challenge is to find areas where they congregate in abundance so that you can harvest them. These will always be areas with current from open waters. Thats what makes the urchins more tasty and makes their flesh richer. In areas with poor current there might be hardly anything to eat in the urchin.

Urchins are always eaten raw and usually while they are still alive. With a protected hand (gloved or otherwise) hold the urchin in your palm with its mouth facing upwards. With a sharp knife cut out its mouth and remove it.

Then using the knife widen the opening of the mouth by braking off little bits until almost half of the shell is gone and you are holding the top hemisphere of the urchins body. All of the food is located here. What you will be looking at are strips of flesh along the interior of the shell (either yellow, brown ,orange, or red) and a mix of little brown egglike things that may be actually eggs but are most likely their faeces. Remove those carefully (if its not your thing) and then using a finger, piece of bread, or spoon scoop out the fleshy strips and consume!!! Alternatively you can add some olive oil and squeeze a bit of lemon straight into the shell before scooping them out with bread.

10 urchins per person is a good snack. Good source of protein if you ever get shipwrecked or left behind, although I hear that they're high on cholesterol.

Urchins:

Get scissors and cut the bottom off, using the mouth to gain access. Scissors means you dont stab yourself!

The eggs are what you eat which are usually yellow or orange. Wash the semi digested weed and algae away till you are left with neat little packages.

Urchin Roe goes well with Sushi, eggs or Mushrooms.

Shadow, is that true for urchins found outside of the Med? When I was a kid and living in Greece I used to eat lots of sea urchins, with just a squeeze of lemon, and limpets right off the rocks. Yummy...!

Adrian said:

Shadow, is that true for urchins found outside of the Med? When I was a kid and living in Greece I used to eat lots of sea urchins, with just a squeeze of lemon, and limpets right off the rocks. Yummy...!

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Just got back from a dive, so kinda slow... Is WHAT true?

The washing the weed away? Or the taste? ???

In Australia there is a small urchin fishery that exports to Japan. My fav recipe of egg and urchin roe, steamed, I got of Iron Chef!

The "edibility" of sea urchins outside of the Med. From what you say Australia, or at least the Japanese, has a taste for them as well.

Adrian

There is a fisherie at the pacific coast of Baja California (north part of the peninsula). They use to send it to japan, raw gonads only. It taste good, maybe little strong flavor for some people.

We have diferent species at the Golfo de California and the one I eat dont taste as the one they fish in cool waters.

saludos

Most urchin species are marketable in Japan the overriding criteria is colour of the roe.
Orange and red best working down towards light yellow.
The purple urchin in Ireland was the focus for a typical "boom and bust"fishery back in the '80's where intensive dive fishing using scuba was practised the urchins were hammered and haven't really recovered to this day.
even the common echinus esculentus(white urchin) has a market and the fishery college up in shetland were looking at making the roe more colourful in order to add value to the fishery, it never took off.
I personally like the taste of urchin roe kind of "Iodiney"?

I personally like the taste of urchin roe kind of "Iodiney"?[/QUOTE]

That's the taste. Iodiney. I like it too.

Well, once when I was a kid and being a complete brat, my parents left me in the car while they went to a fish market that was right down on the wharf in San Pedro. Being a complete brat, I got out and wondered over where a bunch of the local Italian and Portuguese fishermen were sitting around laughing and noshing on urchins. One of them looked up at the little bespectacled kid with the big ears and said "Here kid, try some of this. You'll like it. Good for you." The others thought this was hysterical. Young hard head, here, wasn't about to be laughed at so I tried it. You're right. Iodine is the flavor. I thought it was nasty but I ate it anyway just for spite. After receiving some strange looks and nods, I went back to the car before my parents got back so they never found out. Later I discovered that in Med cultures, it's considered a powerful aphrodesiac. Y'gotta wonder what effect that might have on a 9-year-old . . .

Quetzal
Please stop shouting.
see that little button on the left of the keyboard with Caps Lock printed on it?
Press that once.

Huan said:

Quetzal
Please stop shouting.
see that little button on the left of the keyboard with Caps Lock printed on it?
Press that once.

Click to expand...

WHAT BUTTON IS THAT THEN?