Sea Urchin

[lizziee]

I would love to make a sea urchin soup. Does anyone have a recipe?

[wingding]

This would seem to be a difficult task-if you get a little box of sea urchin,or gather some yourself,you will find that it's difficult to get a consistent great flavor from one piece to the next-do you want the flavor of sea urchin to be predominant?The faint ammonia taste might be a drawback in large quantity..

[lizziee]

I remember having a sea urchin soup at Gagnaire that was absolutely fantastic - the ammonia taste was not there and the texture was velvety and smooth, although you knew you were eating sea urchin. I have a source that will ship sushi grade quality sea urchin, so I am not too concrned re quality.

My source is:http://www.catalinaop.com/uni.htm

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you can't think of a soup, is there another appetizer that that you can think of? I have the one from Union Pacific.

[wingding]

Your query interested me,and I went to Larrouse-Oursinade was mentioned,and recipes are included, as a soup or sauce from Provence,and sea urchin is the predominant flavor.It might also be good in a rouille.

[Liza]

Lizziee, I'll bet between the two of us, we can find a lot of recipes in Art Culinaire. I know they did a feature on sea urchin - I recall a sea urchin flan in particular. Plus, yes, Rocco's sublime Taylor Bay scallops with uni in tomato water. . .

[Jinmyo]

lizziee, the only sea urchin soup I know is this:

Reconstitute wakame in a standard dashi (koumbu and bonito broth). Puree along with soaking liquid, put throw a chinois. Deep but bright green colour. Bring to a simmer with jullienned ginger. Quickly saute cleaned uni in sesame oil. Ladle broth into bowls. Add uni. Ganish with a tiny tiny bit of finely minced kimchee or mustard green pickled in miso and chile. A raw quail egg can be broken into the bowl to lightly poach in the hot broth as well.

[lizziee]

Liza,

The issue of the Art Culinaire you are refering to is #48. I made, over the weekend, the scrambled egg with uni and topped with caviar. It was wonderful. They have an uni flan with green pea bisque that sounds interesting. Problem is that it sounds like last minute cooking and hard to serve to company.

I love the scallop dish with uni, but my husband hates scallops.

Jinmyo,

That sounds great, but the Japanese preparation doesn't fit with the menu. I will try it though.

[Jinmyo]

lizziee, I didn't think it would. Sorry. But I can't think of butter or Western preparations with uni at the same time. It's kind of like chevre and miso... I know it can be done but...

[Liza]

Lizziee, I checked all sorts of references last night, hoping to find a recipe for you. The closest I came was Michel Roux's sea urchin SAUCE, which didn't seem thin-able into making a soup. Nothing in Nobu, Le Bernardin, Art C's, Culinaria France, etc.

[lizziee]

Liza,

You're a doll! Yesterday, I went to the book store and poured over every book I could find. Same problem. Gagnaire must have made this one up, but it was unbelievably delicious.