blowin
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sea urchins ( the eating of )Has anyone tried eating the roe of the urchins from around the NW coast ?
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blowin
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I have done a bit of research and can confirm that all of the specicies from the Irish coast are edible . The preferred ones appear to be the fairly large pinkish type with blunt spines . I imagine the season will start around April . Does anyone care ?
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wayland
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I have never tried them. Rich Stein has them listed as not much to eat apart from a few strips of roe. Which is deliciously sweet when eaten raw.
I am game to try most things but I am not sure that I would want to kill an Urchin just for a few strips of roe. Very interested in Sea Weed though.
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GB
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I had the black spinny ones once-----absolutly to die for  sooooooooo soooooooooooo good. As I remember, they had 5 or 6 strips of roe about 2 or 3 inches long. Not enough but enough to eat them for.  I didnt know they all were foodable though. Good news for rockpooling with the kids.
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blowin
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Tried the first one from Irish waters yesterday and very good it was too if you like that sort of thing 
The urchin was quite small -- maybe 2 1/2 to 3" across , including the spines , so the area inside the shell was about the size of a medium hen's egg . Other than the hard central mouth part the shell was virtually full of roe -- about the equivalent volume as an egg yolk .
The roe is like segments of orange attached to the shell . You just scoop it out ( this one was far too delicate to lift out and serve in the poncey way you may have seen on tv ) . It has almost no texture , that is to say it is creamy rather than "poppy" like caviare ( ok -- Lumpfish roe in my household  ) . It has a sweet flavour with a delicate but sharply fishy background to it ( like the dark lateral line on mackerel ) .
It is strangely rich so you wouldn't need many urchins to make an interesting starter .
The type I tried was not the one recommended earlier ( big w/blunt spines ) . This one was very spiney ! You want the deep purple ones with dense spines . They can look almost black when under water but are quite obviously not so when out of it .
There was a colony of them which had etched deep holes into the rock and they werent easy to get out without breaking so some experimentation may be required . ( It has just occurred to me that those long bacon tongs might be ideal ) . Part of the trick is to grab or prise free quickly -- they grip harder once they have been disturbed .
Do not be tempted to pull them off with your bare fingers ! Those spines penetrate wet skin very easily and they are very brittle . You will need to apply a poultice for several days to get them out .
If you fancy trying them I would suggest you do so before the end of the month as they are worthless once they have spawned . Good luck
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