Buying Fresh Uni/Sea Urchin

[Yaxpac]

If I was to buy a "tray" of sea urchin, aside from eating it raw can anyone suggest what to do with it?

I am not a big fan of it in a pasta sauce as I think it loses a lot of its goodness so anything other than that would be greatly apprecated.

Thanks!

[PoppiYYZ]

Baguette cut on a bias and lightly toasted. Brush with a touch of butter or light EVOO/butter combo. Place two urchin pillows on top and lay a thin (I mean very thin) slice of Lardo on top and melt briefly in warm oven on a rack or hot pan (to keep toast crisp). Eat and faint.

Complements of Michael White Morea.

[PoppiYYZ]

Apologies to Michael, it is Marea not Morea. Bad iPad bad...

[wattacetti]

Over rice as a rice bowl as already suggested or as a very expensive ochazuke. Over a risotto with a little coffee is also interesting. Someone was blowtorching lardo over uni. Savory ice cream.

[rabaja]

My good friend buys it fresh and has it over warm rice. I always want to do this myself, but the box at Najiya is a bit large. Someday I'm gonna splurge though, cholesterol be damned.

[AdamD]

pasta sauce with nori cut on top
uni, olive oil, butter and parmesean
cook the pasta, and stir in oil, a pat of butter and uni at the last minute, garnish with nori and cheese
not an everyday thing but WOW yummy!

Just make sure the uni is not runny at all, you want to see very firm gonads! Always check the pack date.

[bulavinaka]

Hows about uni mousse?

http://www.starchefs.com/events/studi...

[jcolvin]

I've sometimes wondered whether it would be good flash-fried in panko crumbs, for instance. Crispy on the outside, melty in the middle? One day i will try this.

The Greeks eat it by mixing it with some olive oil, a sprinkle of lemon and pepper and some cilantro and serving it on toast. It's still raw, but not sashimi-raw. Makes a change from uni temaki, which is how usually eat my uni.

it's really good with pasta but don't cook it! It should just be warm, basically still raw but nicely warmed.

You can also mix it in with a finished risotto. Just before serving the risotto, stir in the raw uni, again so that it warms but doesn't cook. You can place some pieces of uni on top of the risotto to warm through as well.

mmmmm. this is making me want to go out to buy a another box of uni seconds from the local processing plant. A 2 lb box for $25! I'm uni spoiled and trying to kick the habit, since too much uni is too much of a good thing.

[joonjoon]

2lbs for 25! Where do you live jcolvin?

[jcolvin]

Vancouver :) Basically the broken/off-colour pieces they can't put into the trays. tastes the same, just doesn't look quite a as good on a piece of sushi

[ladooShoppe]

The Greek way sounds amazing jcolvin, I'll have to try that soon. We buy it at the store down the street. We usually just eat it over the sink like cavepeople, right out of the tray. Yummy uni.