What are sea urchins? How to deal with them

Sea urchins play a very important role in the marine ecosystem. Sea urchins are edible, delicious, and highly nutritious. They are spherical or heart-shaped in appearance, and black in color. Their shells are very strong and have black spines. Let's take a closer look at what sea urchins are.

Contents of this article

1. What is a sea urchin?

2. How to deal with sea urchins

3. How to cook sea urchin to make it more delicious

What is a sea urchin?

Sea urchins are marine creatures that generally live in shallow waters. From the appearance, their shape is spherical or heart-shaped, and their color is black. Their shells are very strong and have black spines on them. Although they do not look like animals, they are actually animals in nature and belong to the phylum Echinodermata. They are omnivorous in the ocean and can eat some plants around them, such as algae; they can also eat animals, such as worms and hydras. They generally have a chewing organ in their mouth, and it is relatively developed and can be used to chew food. They also have a digestive tract, which is relatively long and can be used to digest food.

Sea urchins play a very important role in the marine ecosystem. They are edible, delicious and highly nutritious.

How to deal with sea urchins

After washing the selected sea urchins, use scissors to pry open the black soft shell with radiating spines, use a spoon to scoop out the yellow sea urchin eggs that look like orange slices inside the shell, and remove the internal organs. This process requires delicate and skilled movements.

Start from the hole and put the scissors in to cut it open.

Don't cut too deep, just at the edge of the cut surface. If you cut deeper, you will see the edible part of the sea urchin.

Cut a circle and you will see that the cut part is an empty shell with nothing on it. If there is yellow sea urchin meat on it, it means that too much has been cut.

After cutting it open, all you see is a mass of black, red, bloody flesh.

Rinse carefully with running water first, don't rinse too hard. Only the yellow part is edible, the red and black parts are not edible.

Then use chopsticks or your hands to take out the red, bloody part. Those are said to be sea urchin intestines, so there is actually a layer of casing outside, which can be torn off together.

The edible part of the sea urchin is five-lobed, just like a starfish. You can use a small coffee spoon to gently scrape the yellow part off the sea urchin shell.

You can scrape the lobes one by one, or scrape all five lobes at once and take them out together. After taking them out, deal with the remaining intestines and rinse the sea urchin with clean water.

Soak in cold water, lemon juice and salt for 10 minutes. Pay attention to the temperature. Low temperature is best. After soaking, take it out and rinse it slightly. Use a paper towel to press out the excess water and you can eat it.

How to make sea urchin more delicious

Sea urchin sashimi

Ingredients: a few fresh sea urchins, appropriate amount of spicy mustard sauce, appropriate amount of light soy sauce, appropriate amount of lemon juice.

Method: (1) Prepare the ingredients. (2) Clean out a hole half the size of the shell on the top of the sea urchin shell, remove the sea urchin's internal organs, leaving the sea urchin roe, and then pour a mixture of lemon juice, light soy sauce, and spicy mustard sauce on it. (3) When eating, shake it gently to allow the sauce to fully soak around the sea urchin. You will know how delicious it is after you have tried it.

Sea urchin porridge

Ingredients: a few sea urchins, a piece of leftover rice, a few basil leaves, a spoonful of sweet vinegar and shredded ginger, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of white pepper.

Method: (1) Add 3-4 times the amount of water to the leftover rice, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer for another 15 minutes; peel the sea urchin roe and set aside. (2) Add the sea urchin to the thick porridge and stir, but don't stir too hard, otherwise it will all break into pieces. Turn to medium heat and cook for 5 minutes. (3) Finally, add chopped basil leaves, sweet vinegar ginger, white pepper powder, and salt to taste.

Sea Urchin Fried Rice

Ingredients: about 80g of fresh sea urchin (if you don’t have the heart to use sea urchin sashimi, go to the supermarket to buy sea urchin paste or fresh frozen dehydrated sea urchin meat), about 30g of minced ginger (essential and very important), one egg, appropriate amount of Chinese cabbage, a normal amount of rice for two people, and appropriate amount of green onions.

Preparation: (1) Mix the minced ginger and sea urchin meat evenly and set aside. (2) Beat the eggs and pour oil into a pan. When the oil is 50% hot, add the eggs and stir-fry in one direction until they are crumbly. Set aside. (3) Wash the Chinese cabbage and cut the root into small pieces (close to granules) for later use. (4) Use scallion oil to stir-fry the sea urchin and minced ginger until they become a paste. Add the eggs and Chinese cabbage and stir-fry continuously. (5) Add the rice and stir-fry evenly. Add appropriate amount of salt to taste.