Fresh Live Sea Urchin at Home!

Tired of paying a premium for Sea Urchin (Uni)? Me too! I decided to buy a couple live ones at a fish market over the weekend. Unfortunately they have bumped up the price tremendously from $5 each to $5 /lb! It is always a toss coin when it comes to choosing the right one as you can't tell without opening it!

Here are some tips that may be helpful:

1. Make sure it's alive! Wiggle the spikes with your fingers and see if it moves and how fast it moves!
2. Bigger is NOT better! The older it is, the less likely it'll taste good/bitter. Look for a medium size (slightly bigger than a softball is ideal)
3. Get it pre-shucked! It's honestly a huge toss-up in terms of taste, color, and texture. I just bought it for fun as I like to dissect things and like getting items in their original forms instead of it already processed. Unfortunately one of the two I purchased was extremely bitter! =(

 If you don't have a fancy tool to split the sea urchin in half. All you need is a pair of scissors and two large spoons! If you were not successful in splitting it in half, simply use a pair of scissors to complete the split. Do try to avoid cutting the sea urchin though!

With regarding the purpose of the spoons...

1. Simply put stack them on the back of each other
2. Position the spoon heads on the weak spot of the sea urchin which is on its bottom (look for a small hole to pierce) 
3. Pull the spoons' handle away from each other.

Now simply, gently use a spoon to scoop up the sea urchin meat. It is extremely delicate! Scoop it gently like as if you were scooping up some partially melted butter in a bowl. Then immediately submerse it in a pool of cold water for cleaning, remove any residues stuck on it, and place it on a paper towel to dry. There should be five pieces of sea urchin meat in each spiky shell. 

If you did it right, it should look something similar to below! Enjoy! Hope yours isn't bitter!

 Cheers!

Sea Urchin #1

Sea Urchin #2

Center weak spot at bottom of the shell!

Insert spoons into the center bottom weak spot!

Voila!

Cleaned out!

Give it a good clean!

Pay dry!

Voila!

Homemade Sushi Rolls

It's a sushi roll kind of night.  I spent at least 45 minutes browsing through Yelp trying to find a good sushi place with fairly priced sushi rolls.  Unfortunately I came across either really good places with insanely high prices, or very mediocre places with affordable sushi.  The only solution to this dilemma, was of course, to make my own sushi rolls.

I am by no means an expert at rolling sushi, but I certainly had some of the basic components necessary to construct a roll.  Rice cooker, check. Bamboo mat, check. Sharp knife, check.  So now all I needed to do was to stock up on some great seafood!  I went to a local Zion (Korean supermarket) and picked up some BBQ Unagi (Eel), sashimi-grade Salmon, Masago (Fish roe), Uni (Sea urchin), Imitation crab, an avocado, and a zucchini (I meant to get a cucumber but stupidly picked the wrong vegetable...what? they were right next to each other!).

Step 1: Line the Bamboo mat with clear plastic wrap
Step 2: Make a thin layer of rice (seasoned with sweetened rice vinegar) in the shape of a rectangle
Step 3: Place a layer of Nori (seaweed) over the square of rice (slightly smaller than the size of the rice rectangle)
Step 4: Line the stuffing/ingredients along the center
Step 5: Roll gently and incrementally, squeezing the roll lightly as you go along
Step 6: Lay some thinly sliced sashimi and/or avocado over the top of the roll. Give the entire roll a nice squeeze again with the Bamboo mat.
Step 7: Cut your roll (wet and wipe your knife each time to avoid squishing your roll or having the roll stick to your knife)

You can probably find good step-by-step videos on YouTube.

I'll just provide pictures of the final products :)

Roll 1: (Inside) Avocado, zucchini, imitation crab with japanese mayo and sriracha. (Outside) salmon and avocado. Top with Masago (Fish roe).
Roll 2: (Inside) Unagi, imitation crab with Japanese mayo and Sriracha, avocado, and zucchini. (Outside) Unagi and avocado. Top with masago.

TA-DA~!

Grocery List

Sea Urchin and Masago (Fish roe)

Flavoring Agents

Rainbow Roll

Making of Dragon Roll

Dragon Roll

Finished Product!