The market · Fish and seafood · East Asia, Southern Europe
Sea urchins
Uni, oursin, riccio: inside the spiny shell are five tongues of orange roe — sweet, rich, creamy, and tasting of clean, cold seawater.
sweet · creamy · oceanic
What to do with it
Goes with
Knowing it
- Where to buy
- Live and heavy from good fishmongers, spines still moving; or cleaned roe in trays from Japanese suppliers. The roe should be firm, bright and sweet-smelling — slumped or bitter is old. Tray uni is often treated with alum to hold its shape, which can taste bitter.
- Worth knowing
- Keep it as cold as possible and serve it within a day. To open, cut round the mouth on the flat underside with scissors, pour off the liquid and lift out the tongues with a teaspoon. Heat it only gently — stirred into hot pasta or butter off the heat — or it turns grainy.
