Fresh Sea Urchin with Yuzu Kosho Mignonette on Eggplant Tempura
I went with my mom to the supermarket yesterday and discovered the one slightly further into Flushing had… fresh sea urchin. As in unopened spiky globes hiding delicious roe goodness. Of course, me being me, I bought four (My mom said “I knew you’d be excited because I saw them last time I came here.” I didn’t get any more than that because I was uncertain if they would be any good: I always have these concerns when I can’t see the interior.)–weighing them in my hands for heavy ones hoping to hit the jackpot.
And jackpot it was! Upon opening them up, five tongues of gorgeous roe sat glistening. I have never had the opportunity to really look closely at one, much less open one up. The mouth (which is also its butt) had what looked like teeth, and tiny pearls of clay and mud were interspersed within the body cavity that I spent some time rinsing off. Do urchins need grit to aid their digestion? I don’t know but it was interesting to see. They are algae eaters, and use their teeth to scrape rocks.
I chose to fry up a few thin slices of eggplant, tempura style, and dress it with a red yuzu kosho mignonette sauce (this sauce is really popular among my friends and family) with a fragrant jar of the kosho my sister brought me from Dashi Okume.
I have a tempura recipe floating around here so this is not for that, and more for the mignonette sauce. You can omit it altogether and just serve the uni on a spoon.
Urchin can be an acquired taste, as it’s unique creamy flavor of seafood, a hint of iodine, and brine is not to everyone’s taste–however, completely fresh uni straight from the urchin itself is sweet and subtle, which I didn’t realize it could be. What an absolute treat!
This sauce can be served with steak tartare, with oysters, clams, shrimp, what have you. The yuzu kosho is a flavor found nowhere else, peppery with deep notes of citrus. I always have a jar of it around but I had run out a while ago until my sister came to the rescue.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did constructing this!
Ingredients
- 1/4 teaspoon red or green yuzu kosho
- 1 tablespoon minced red onion or shallot
- 4 tablespoons rice or red wine vinegar
- 3 drops sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Serve on clams or oysters on the halfshell, or with sea urchin roe.