From Ritsa to Uni: a Sea Urchin Story

 

I have been meaning to write about this topic for quite a while and somehow it kept slipping through. So here it is. 

I first came to know what ‘ritsa’ ( ريتسا ) is from my childhood on the Mediterranean beaches of Alexandria. More formally known as ( قنفذ البحر ) or hedgehog of the sea, they were sold by vendors along with clams as well as sugary treats like ‘fresca’ and other snacks. 

As a 3-4 year old kid, they terrified me. Why? Most likely due to their hostile and dark spiky appearance. Also, because people would often step on them, which was a heck of an unpleasant experience to say the least. 

If you never stepped on a sea urchin before, let me tell you that it’s somewhat horrible as the pain can be excruciating. While sometimes we are able to extract the spines by ourselves, probably using a tweezers, others have to go to doctors or even hospitals for help. The round shape and the abundance of spines make it almost a certainty that you get stung by more than a few. In some cases they cannot be taken out as they break off inside the skin, then one has to carry on living with them planted deep inside their soles or heels — or anywhere else throughout the body — where they dissolve with time. Vinegar expedites the process; a reason why it is advised to first soak the affected area in vinegar before trying to remove the spines.

 

As such, younger me has never ever eaten ritsa on any beach. Actually I wouldn’t even come close to whoever would be eating them. Not that many in my surrounding did anyway. So I never really knew how people managed to do it with all these scary spines around the core — shell. What naivety.


 Let alone know what the edible part looks like.

I do remember that my first injury came a bit later in Hurghada on the Red Sea when snorkelling was an enjoyable activity for my then 8-9 year old self. But I was relatively fine. I mean, I took it “like a man” until we got the spines out. Still by then I had never tried consuming them. 

 

Many moons then passed by while ritsa became a distant childhood memory… until I began getting into sushi. For a few years in North America when dropping the meats completely out of my diet, I would from time to time indulge in seafood and sushi. By the early 30s sushi had become that rather expensive drug used on occasions — as a reward system to hack into my brain. Naturally I’ve become somewhat of a connoisseur one could say. 

 

Starting in Toronto then later in L.A, I began coming across one type of Nigiri sushi which left my taste buds in utter ecstasy: Uni in Japanese, or Sea Urchin Roe in English. It is a light brown paste that is usually one of the most expensive Nigiris. If a portion of salmon/tuna/crab costs $2 or 3 Dollars, Uni would be about $4.50. I once asked an Asian chef about the reason behind the price. To which he said it takes a whole animal to make a single two-piece Nigiri portion. 



Note that by then I still had not made the connection between this yummy paste and the spiky ritsa from my childhood in Alexandria and Hurghada. As mentioned earlier, I had never even seen it — the edible part that is. Then one day I decided to Google ‘sea urchin’, and Lo and Behold: A variety of images of good ol’ dear ritsa came onto the screen. Ah, You! 

Delicious sea urchin roe or Uni (bottom right), flying fish roe
or Tobiko (bottom left), then the 4 salmon roe or Ikura

The above photo was taken at Sushi Raw in San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles where I would go whenever spending few days at my aunt. You see, sushi prices in Venice Beach, or the Westside in general, are a tad too much for this Bohemian artist. So I would take advantage of being in The Valley and go enjoy some hot sake along with this filling and fulfilling meal.

Ironically, one of the very few things I feared as a kid turned out to be one of the tastiest delicacies my adult self would enjoy. A reminder of the quote: “Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear.”

With that being said, and before we proceed, I now feel compelled to add that back in 2014 I was one night harassed by cops on the way back from dining at Sushi Raw. On a bicycle, mind you. Yep. Stop-n-Search That Hippy then came into being.

 

So what exactly are ritsas/sea urchins?

 

Sea urchins (Echinoidia) are spiny globular animals, echinoderms, in the class Echinoidea. There are about 950 different species scattered around the world’s sea beds across all oceans — in hot and cold water alike. They usually range in size from 3 to 10 cm (1 to 4 in). However, only 18 out of 950 are edible.

Sea urchins are members of the phylum Echinodermata, which also includes sea stars, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, and crinoids. With Echinoidia as their class, they are in the Camarodonta order and some belong to the Echinidae family. This family contains genera including Strongylocentrotus and Lytechinus.

Like other echinoderms, they have five-fold symmetry (called pentamerism) and cannot swim; instead, they move by means of hundreds of tiny transparent, adhesive “tube feet”. Sometimes they push themselves using their spines.

Etymologically, ‘Echinoidea’ originates from the Greek ekhinos, spine. The word ‘urchin’ is conveniently an old word for hedgehog, which is the same in Arabic with ( قنفذ ) [konfez] meaning hedgehog while ( البحر ) [al bahr] is the sea. Apparently, they were archaically called “sea hedgehogs” in English as well. The name is derived from Old French herichun, from Latin ericius, hedgehog.

Purple and red among other colours.
Photos from Associated Press, KPBS (top), Hakai Magazine (bottom)

For consumption, sea urchins are harvested for their gonads. The following is taken straight from Wikipedia with minor editorial polishing:

The gonads of both male and female sea urchins, usually called sea urchin roe or corals, are culinary delicacies in many parts of the world. In Mediterranean cuisines, Paracentrotus lividus is often eaten raw, or with lemon, just like on the beaches of Egypt.

In Italian menus they are known as ricci and are sometimes used in pasta sauces. Notice ricci/ritsa — Words With Italian Origin That Are Still Used Today In Egypt has a lot more similarities.
Also used to flavour omelettes, scrambled eggs, fish soup, mayonnaise, béchamel sauce for tartlets, the boullie for a soufflé, and Hollandaise sauce to make a fish sauce.

In Chilean cuisine, it is served raw with lemon, onions, and olive oil. Though the edible Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis is found in the North Atlantic, it is not widely eaten. However, sea urchins (called uutuk in Alutiiq) are commonly eaten by the Alaska Native population around Kodiak Island. It is commonly exported, mostly to Japan. In the West Indies, slate pencil urchins are eaten. On the Pacific Coast of North America, Strongylocentrotus franciscanus was praised by Euell Gibbons; Strongylocentrotus purpuratus is also eaten.

In New Zealand, Evechinus chloroticus — known as kina in Maori — is a delicacy which is traditionally eaten raw. Though New Zealand fishermen would like to export them to Japan, their quality is too variable.

In Japan, sea urchin, known as uni (うに), and its roe can retail for as much as ¥40,000 ($360) per kg; it is served raw as sashimi or in sushi, with soy sauce and wasabi. Japan imports large quantities from the United States, South Korea, and other producers. The Japaneses consume 50,000 tons annually, amounting to over 80% of global production. Such a high demand for sea urchins has raised concerns about overfishing.

Native Americans in California are equally known to eat sea urchins. The coast of Southern California is famous for being a source of high quality uni, with divers picking sea urchin from kelp beds in depths as deep as 24 m/80 ft. As of 2013, the state was limiting the practice to 300 sea urchin diver licenses. 

To finally reach closure, two summers ago while back on the Mediterranean Northern Coast of Egypt, I came across a vendor selling ritsa on the beach. Knowing then its full story, I decided to finally go for it, almost four decades later. All I remember is how tiny each ‘portion’ was. Ridiculously so, ending up licking what could fit on a single thumbnail. For now, sushi is the best way to enjoy them. I just wish they weren’t that pricey.

By the end of writing this article I came to remember what made them initially come to mind after slipping through the cracks for so long. Two factors contributed, actually:

The first is how they are by the gazillions here on the Ein el Sokhna beach by the Red Sea where I had been residing for more than a year. Literally few metres away from the shore.

The second is missing the overpriced uni. Speaking of, mayhap I can just dive in, pick some up, and make my own? Or just enjoy them in the raw à la Mediterranean? Hm.
Unfortunately, however, those Red Sea ones are not part of the 18 edible species.

Having been living the beach life for almost seven years now, one cannot help but be drawn to all kinds of seafood.

Eventually one day I thought to end this age-long lesson by watching the below educating YouTube video — shot in California. It basically covers how sea urchins are processed commercially: Starting with opening, scooping up, cleaning, then packing it and making ready to be devoured. It goes on to show how they are graded according to the colour and texture, starting with premium and followed by three lesser quality grades.

One must say that the sizes of sea urchins shown in the video are significantly larger than the ones I finally tried on the Northern Coast.


And now we know. Salute.

SOURCES:



*Featured image: Diadem sea urchin (Diadema antillarum) by Flowergarden.noaa.gov (top left)

• How To Dive For Sea Urchins, And Tips For Eating Them by FoodRepublic.com (top right)

• Norway’s first onshore sea urchin farm up and running by Nofima, Sciencenorway.no (middle)

• Open sea urchins in Sicily, Wikipedia (bottom left)

• Japanese uni-ikura don, sea urchin egg and salmon egg donburi, Wikipedia (bottom right)

*Second image: Sea Urchin Invasion Wreaks Destruction On California, Oregon Coasts by KPBS (top)
Sea Urchins Stress Out by Hakai Magazine (bottom)

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New Kreation: Jambalaya with Salmon and Shrimps

While all alone at the beach house in Ein el Sokhna on the Red Sea, where I have been residing for the past year, I decided to try something totally new: Jambalaya. What made me think about this Louisianian dish all the way here? Not sure. But I tend to be weirdly random like that — as some of you must know by now. Well, mayhap because I had salmon and shrimp and wanted something new that combined both. So as usual, I consulted Google. 

Most jambalaya recipes include andouille sausages and cod fish. This was confirmed by Ronald McKinley, a friend a fellow drummer from L.A who’s originally from New Orleans. Not having either, I chose to carry on checking recipes; eventually realising that salmon can indeed be used while the sausages, well, the dish would still very well be edible without them. Or so I reckoned. So I headed to the kitchen and went right at it. I later shared the photo on Instagram and Facebook with a bit of history as well as a bit of etymology of the word. However, I did not share the ingredients nor the directions, which were added herein. 

All I knew about jambalaya is that it was a song by Jerry Lee Lewis, originally written and performed by Hank Williams in 1952. Much later I found out jambalaya is a Creole/Cajun dish, first made popular at the melting pot of French, Spanish, and African communities of New Orleans, Louisiana. One day I decided to try it... including 28 different ingredients! 

 

There is something highly invigorating about trying new things. You see, about not knowing what the outcome would be; about the very novelty which brings about uncertainty. Despite being a first-time experience, the final result turned out to be heavenly. Beside cooking, digging and researching the origin and history of the dish and the linguistic etymology of the word are also part of the excitement. Then this storyteller finds exquisite joy in retelling his findings. So the experience remains multilayered as it is enjoyed differently throughout the process. 

Might as well share the song, despite this odd jam

Now to the History...

 

Jambalaya is of Creole and Cajun origins, first made popular at the melting pot of French, Spanish, and African communities of New Orleans, Louisiana. There are two main varieties: Caju, which uses the culinary technique known as “dumping”, and Creole which uses the “layering” technique. Of course being here on the beach — all the way in Egypt — meant I had to improvise, bearing in mind what I have and what I don’t. Whatever the result, I absolutely love trying new things. And the Internet is simply a wonderful medium allowing us to do just that.

 

Jambalaya sounds like a funny word. But where did it come from? The below is an extensive and multicultural etymology of the word, as shown in Wikipedia:

 

Fittingly for a product of Cajun culture, the word “jambalaya” seems to have as many possible origins and authors as the complex dish has ingredients and variations — and most of these are easier to discredit than to verify. Until very modern times, Louisiana cooking was largely confined to the local region. The result is a meagre written record of the area’s food history, and folklore has often became “fact”.

 

The most commonly repeated folklore is that the word derives from the combination of the French jambon meaning ham, the French article “à la”, a contraction of “à la manière de”, meaning “in the style of”, and “ya”, thought to be of West African origin meaning rice. Hence, the dish was named “jamb à la ya”. However, ham is not the signature ingredient of the dish and there is no known African language in which “ya” means “rice”.

 

Another source suggests that the word comes from the Spanish jamon (ham) + paella, a noted Spanish rice dish. However, Spanish speakers would call a ham paella paella con jamon, not jamon paella.

 

There is also a popular old wives’ tale about the origin of the word “jambalaya”:

 

Late one evening a travelling gentleman stopped by a New Orleans inn which had little food remaining from the evening meal. The traveller instructed the cook, “Jean, balayez!” or “Jean, sweep something together!” in the local dialect. The guest pronounced the resulting hodge-podge dish as “Jean balayez”.

 

The first print appearance of any variant of the word “jambalaya” in any language occurred in Leis amours de Vanus; vo, Lou paysan oou théâtré, by Fortuné (Fourtunat) Chailan, first published in Provencal in 1837. It includes this text (translated):

The upstairs neighbors were making a din All kinds of people, rich and poor: It was a mish-mash [jambaraya] of red inebriated faces.

 

It is also found in a poem by Louis Charles Felix Peise, “La Testo et la Coua de la Serp”, from his book Leis Talounados de Barjomau (1865), which includes this line (translated):

This rabble [jambalaia] reminds me Of the arrival of an old snake.

 

Both publications are French and neither example used the word in a culinary sense. In both cases it indicates a mish-mash, rabble, or mixture — a meaning that lends itself well to jambalaya.

 

The earliest appearance of the word in print in English occurs in the May 1849 issue of the American Agriculturalist, where Solon Robinson refers to a recipe for “Hopping Johnny (jambalaya)”.

 

Interestingly, while the names Hopping John and jambalaya are treated as referring to the same dish, the recipe is clearly a jambalaya, not a “Hopping John” which is made from rice and beans or peas. An article in the 1875 New Orleans Times reported jambalaya as “spelled in French jumbliade; but the dish is of Indian origin” and “originally made of zizania aquatica, or wild rice … and of several varieties of beans or frijoles as the Mexican Indians call them.” This recipe clearly describes Hopping John, not jambalaya.

 

Jambalaya did not appear in a cookbook until 1878, when The Gulf City Cook Book, by the Ladies of the St. Francis Street Methodist Episcopal Church, was printed in South Mobile, Alabama. It contains a recipe for “JAM BOLAYA”.


Ingredients:


Following such an obscure history, here comes the works. The following are the ingredients used the second time, which included a few more than on the first trial. With over 28, jambalaya is usually a one-pot meal. The cool thing about it is that you can freely add or deduct whatever you feel like.

• Olive oil

• Butter

• Diced onions

• Garlic minced

• Diced red and yellow bell peppers

• Peeled seeded chopped tomatoes

• Tomato paste

• Carrots

• Corn

• Ginger

• Potatoes

• White rice

• Boneless skinned salmon cut in cubes

• Shrimps peeled and deveined

• Vegetable broth

• Salt & Pepper

• Basil

• Thyme

• Oregano 

• Rosemary   

• Herbes de Provence

• Turmeric

• Black seeds

• Onion powder

• Garlic powder

• Soya

• Dijon mustard 

• Tabasco

 

Yeah, 28 ingredients and I absolutely love it! Note that, for this very reason, adding relatively small amounts of all herbs and spices seems like a mint idea. I simply used what is available here on the beach while discarding whatever I don’t like or have. Like Cod fish instead of the salmon, which is how they usually make it in Louisiana. There was also celery, which I am really not fond of. Also the Andouille sausage that is one of the main ingredients along with the fish and shrimps. In fact, many of the recipes consulted were titled: Shrimp, Sausage, and Fish Jambalaya. Then again, this is my own version one could say.

I was all alone, so the dish was made for two people, which was enjoyed over two nights. Using one salmon filet and about 12 shrimps. The remaining quantities are not added yet can be seen in the photo below — taken during preparations.  


Directions:

• Add the oil to the heavy-bottom pot on medium high heat then the butter.

• Once the butter melts, add the onion and stir for 5 minutes.

• Add the yellow & red peppers and carrots to the mixture.

• Then add the garlic and stir for about a minute.

• Add the tomato paste and stir for 4-5 minutes.

• Now add the diced tomatoes, corn, salt & pepper, a dash of soya, and 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard.

• Put the vegetable broth in the mix and bring to a boil.

• Stir, add a cup of rice, then reduce heat to medium low and cover — leave it undisturbed for 25-30 minutes till the rice cooks.

• Finally add the shrimp and cubes of salmon while increasing the heat to medium-high. Once boiling, reduce again to simmer for another 10 minutes. Add thyme, oregano, rosemary, herbes de Provence, Turmeric, black seeds, onion powder, and garlic powder — stirring occasionally.

Et Voilà. Now serve and indulge. Nom Nom Nom.

Buon Appetito...

The Lots

 

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