Homecooking: Uni party
Uni is Japanese for sea urchin and they kind of look like a little orange sea slug (or maybe a tongue?). Uni is a delicacy and there are a lot of uni lovers around the world who love this little thing.
I, myself, am not the biggest uni fan because they are often very expensive and sometimes they taste a bit too fishy for me. They really can taste like the ocean. However, the uni I’ve had in Japan tasted sweet and delicate so I think it really depends on what quality grade your uni is.
In this blog post, I will be sharing how we had our uni party, where we got our uni and how we prepared it.
Where to buy uni
Our friend told us that uni is currently in season and that’s why we decided to have an uni feast.
We paid a visit to Fresh Ideas Start Here (FISH), a sustainably sourced seafood shop in Burnaby. Our friend called them the day before and the owner told him that uni is usually pre-order only, so if you are planning to purchase some, I recommend pre-ordering if possible. We did not pre-order, but we did arrive at the shop by 10:30 am and we were able to purchase 10 sea urchins for $30!
Each sea urchin has around 5 pieces inside so you are looking at roughly 50 pieces of uni for $30! Isn’t that crazy?? I always had to pay $5-8 for just one piece of uni nigiri at a sushi restaurant.
Preparation
After arriving home, we had to leave the sea urchins in a bowl covered by a damp tea towel. When it was time to start preparing, we used scissors to cut them open. Gloves are recommended if you don’t want to be pricked!
After cutting the sea urchin open, you have to wash out all these guts. They look like black period blood (sorry). Be careful not to use too strong of a water pressure when washing out the inside because it can damage the pieces of uni.
After washing out the inside, use a little spoon and carefully scoop out the pieces of uni into another tray or plate. You will then have to wash these individual pieces again in a bowl of water. Then leave to dry on another tray.
Uni meal
We decide to stick with uni sushi instead of trying to make uni pasta because we want to taste the uni by itself in its original nature. Also, I heard my friend say his uni pasta didn’t turn out really well.
To make the uni sushi, we use sushi rice and mix it with rice vinegar and mirin in replacement of sugar. Then, we cut up thin strips of seaweed to wrap around the little ball of rice and place the uni on top. Add on a small dallop of wasabi and viola:
To accompany the leftover uni, we make little donburis (rice bowls) with the leftover sushi rice, some roasted seaweed, and your choice of thinly sliced beef and pork. You can also add an egg yolk.
We also make miso soup, which you can either buy all the components from an instant pack, or use dashi miso and tofu.
Final thoughts
Uni is graded on colour, texture and freshness. Grade A will give off a bright gold colour with sweetness. The sea urchin is like a gatcha game – some of the uni pieces were better than other pieces so you don’t really know what you’re going to get until you cut open your urchin and take a look. There were a few funky ones in our dinner, but also some really fresh and sweet pieces.
What surprised me the most was that the uni itself was not super expensive. $3 per sea urchin (albeit different grades of uni inside) is not a price I thought seafood shops would sell urchin for. If you are planning to eat it fresh, the only prep work really needed is just cutting up the urchin and cleaning the uni out. After that, it is essentially ready to eat.
Overall, we had a really great dinner. The miso soup was such a heartwarming end to the feast. I recommend you all to try having an uni party of yourself while they are still in season in BC!
Sincerely, Loewe