On the Mediterranean coast, we currently celebrate the full and short season of this delicious and rare echinoderm, paying attention to preserve the species.
It is a large sea chestnut that hides its tenderness and character under dark thorns. « The urchin is always highly anticipated in Marseille and has a certain analogy with this city: it can sting but, inside, is of crazy sweetness and intensity. » Word of Marseillais of adoption! Originally from Jura, chef Emmanuel Perrodin has lived and breathed Marseille for decades and quickly succumbed to the charm of this local emblem that drives gourmets crazy in the middle of winter, from the Côte Bleue to the Côte d’Azur.
For three short months, many local sea festivals are thus transformed into real iodized banquets where this echinoderm is enjoyed with great pomp. Passion does not prevent moderation: hedgehing resources are limited because they are threatened by poaching at sea. To avoid their disappearance, the authorized fishing time had to be drastically shortened (from December 15 to February 28 in the Bouches-du-Rhône and the Var and until April 15 in the Alpes-Maritimes)
A handful of professional fishermen, working in an artisanal way and respectful of protected species, were adowed like Damien Feraud, on the Côte Bleue. « This framework means that 90% of the sea urchins served during the sea urchins in the South come from Galicia and Brittany: climate change has moved the lines, » says Ilane Tinchant, head of the well-named L’Oursin in Carry-le-Rouet.
Once at the table, it does not matter its origin: whether it is small or large, purple, red or even green, the sea urchin remains this unique sea concentrate in the mouth. « It is full-bodied and sweet at the same time, » says Emmanuel Perrodin, author of L’Oursin – Ten ways to cook it (Éditions de l’Épure). Eating it raw at the exit of the water is priceless! But you can also cook it, provided you know how to accompany it correctly. «
The chef likes to place orange tongues on a blond liver cake, earth-sea style; incorporate them into a county soufflé or make a « Montrendon wolf », a masterpiece fish of Provencal gastronomy, stuffed with sea urchins, mussels and lobster… A monument of simplicity, pasta with sea urchins is also a nice way to appreciate them: to prepare them, Antoine Villard, chef of the Dandelion restaurant in Paris, emulsifies the water rendered by the sea urchin with butter and lemon before adding the tongues
He then glazes the pasta with this divine sauce before finishing with a touch of garlic and roasted breadcrumbs and an oil infused with garrigue herbs… « It is a luxury product but originally it was a poor dish because it was picked up between the rocks during the holidays, with a tuba, recalls the chef. Fortunately, the sea urchin remains natural, wild and complex in flavors, with finesse and even small metallic notes. «
In Paris, you can also enjoy it in its simplest device, on a tray, at L’Écailler du Bistrot (11th) or at the Bistrot Ordinaire (11th), where it is cooked in its shell, in the oven, topped with a candied egg yolk…
On the Côte Bleue, Ilane Tinchant appreciates its light hazelnut taste – in a simple scrambled eggs, it’s exceptional! – and uses it at the restaurant « like caviar and truffle: it’s a flavor enhancer that gives its letters of nobility to a dish ». The following two Sundays are the Carry-le-Rouet Oursinades, during which Ilane Tinchant serves a 100% sea urchin menu
Among other things, there is a beef tartare linked to tongues, washed down with a consommé with spices and filtered sea urchin water, a shellfish marinière with a garlic, sea urchin and cuttlefish sauce and even a chocolate-seaweed-sea urchin dessert: a chocolate tart, with a sea lettuce sorbet and sea urchin water, topped with a few tongues and salicorns. A daring dish that we will never taste elsewhere.
source : la tribune
