It’s been two weeks since my arrival in Phnom Penh, the bustling capital of Cambodia, and I’ve been given the warmest of welcomes. The Khmer people are so friendly and soft in nature, and everyone has been incredibly helpful and as I find my feet in this exciting new environment. Right now Cambodia is experiencing an unprecedented growth in tourism – up to 16% each year – and this makes it a very exciting time to be here.

Rory, Melita and everyone in the growing Song Saa team have been very focused and driven in achieving their dream of opening a resort where luxury and sustainability can co-exist. For a chef, this is a truly unique opportunity to explore the rich tradition of Khmer cooking, while also treading as lightly as possible on the environment.

I’ll be documenting this exploration and taking you with me as we search for Cambodia’s finest ingredients, which will form the basis of our menus on Song Saa.

The first ingredient I’ll be looking at is sea urchin.

A couple of days ago I was lucky enough to have some sea urchins brought to me from the island. There are a lot of these spiny creatures on the coral reefs surrounding Song Saa but – in keeping with our conservation focus – I’ll be working closely with the environmental team to establish a sustainable protocol for their harvest.

As Francois Dufour from the conservation team advised: “Sea urchins help corals by grazing on algae that compete with them for space. We therefore need to make sure we don’t remove too many of them from the ecosystem. By controlling the number we take, we can ensure they continue to help the coral reefs recover. By knowing the density of the population, we’ll be able to determine the maximum number of sea urchins we can sustainably harvest in the reserve.”

Urchins are a beautiful natural ingredient and, when time permits, we will find the perfect place for them on our menu. We will use them in our fresh sushi (sea urchin sushi is called ‘uni’ in Japan). They are also delightful with scrambled eggs with their fresh, slightly sweet taste. We have another unique use for them – drying the roe and finely grating it into a powder to season our fish, delivering the fresh taste of the sea.

Sea urchins, from the class ‘Echinoidea’ inhabit all oceans. Their shell, or “test”, is round and spiny, typically from three to 10 centimetres across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple, and red. The ones we find surrounding Song Saa are a vivid dark purple. They move slowly, feeding mostly on algae. Their “roe” (actually the gonads) is a delicacy in many cuisines.

They are a little tricky to work with at the start because of their spines, but the best way is to wear a glove or hold them inside a cloth and trim off the outer spines with a good strong pair of kitchen scissors. Alternatively you could use a good pair of tongs to steady the shell while you start trimming. Once you get used to the process it becomes a lot easier. It’s best to select the larger ones as they have more flesh inside the shell.

On the underside of the urchin you will find the mouth, which resembles a small beak. Surrounding this is a circular area of soft tissue. Make an incision in this soft tissue and cut all the way around the mouthpiece. Once you’ve done this, pull the mouth from the socket by gently tugging with the scissors.

There are quicker ways of removing the delicious orange flesh from the shell but we’ve chosen this way so we can reuse the shells later after drying.

Once you’ve removed the mouth, pour out the excess water, flip the shell and trim again around the small tube, which will help detach the tissue inside the shell.

Take a small spoon and use the handle just to ease the flesh away from the side of the shell and into a bowl.

You’ll find a lot of dark tissue comes out with the roe but this is easily discarded, Cover the insides of the urchin with cold water and gently pull the beautiful orange flesh away from the rest. Set into another bowl of clean cold water to remove all traces of everything but the orange flesh.

You’re now ready to eat! A squeeze of Lemon, or a dip in some wasabi and soy is all you need. For myself, I like them natural with just a pinch of sea salt. At Song Saa we don’t use just any sea salt. Here we make our own from the beautiful clear waters around our beloved islands.