SEA URCHIN RISOTTO

Serves 4

1 cup diced yellow onion, 1/8” dice
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
Freshly crushed white peppercorns
1 cup Arborio rice
4 – 5 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 – 3/4 cup fresh sea urchin roe, carefully cleaned of all spines and grit, divided

Sauté the onions, lightly seasoned with salt and freshly crushed white peppercorns, in olive oil until they soften and start to turn golden. Stir in the rice to completely coat it with oil and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine, and stir until it’s almost absorbed. Add 1/2 cup stock and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the Continue Reading »

On the Empordan coast in northern Catalonia , sea urchins are a delicacy.   For an opportunity to sample Sea Urchins why not take the Ultimate Gourmet Tour in January, February or early March. Paracentrotus lividus goes by many names in Catalonia . In Spanish it´s erizo de mar (sea hedgehog – an old meaning in English of urchin is the same). The Catalans also call the zoological species an eriço but the animal to be scoured out and eaten is a garota. In the villages along the coast, sea urchin eating reveries are held every year known as orisades, garoinades or garotades, organised originally by fishermen, hence the simplicity in their preparation. Outside the Empordan region there is little about sea urchins in the Spanish Mediterranean, however as Barcelona’s middle class began to buy up huge swathes of one of the most beautiful corners of Spain, they muscled in on the custom, and it is now relatively easy – at a price- to get hold of a few urchins in La Boqueria in Barcelona. Garotes feature strongly and strangely on the winter menus of the trendiest Catalan restaurants these days.  Gastronomes here wax lyrical about their delights. The famous Spanish Journalist and Writer, Julio Cambó said ‘there is no seafood that better synthesises the sea so perfectly as the urchin‘ and . ‘an extract of the sea, a breath of a storm, an essence of tempests“. They’re also eaten in Asturias where I believe they use them to make a fine omelette, and urchin caviar is becoming increasingly popular. Continue Reading »