I had many reasons to celebrate life last year. As usual, one of my favorite means of rewarding myself was to by trying new recipe. I learned quite a bit about cooking skate that day. When I cook it again, I’ll be more careful about getting the cooking oil to a higher temperature in the pan before I add the fish.
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One of the best meals I’ve had in Boston was at The Blue Room with with my dad, step-mom and other family members. I had skate wing in brown butter and have always remembered the succulent, tender white flesh bathed in tangy sauce.
Skate Wing with Black Butter, and Arugula, courtesy of StephenCooks.com
I wasn’t surprised to learn that skate wings were once used as fake scallops, before they became reasonably valuable commodities in their own right. Upon learning of my dinner plans, my housemate dismissed them as “trash fish,” being the consummate sportsfisherman.
I persevered in the face of his disparagement.
After all, I’d already invested in the filet.
The recipe I used was quite simple, adapted from several I found online (you can see them all at my delicious boomarks for skate).
The slowest element of the meal was, far and away, the acorn squash. I started that an hour earlier. After preheating the oven to 400, I cut the squash in half, removed the seeds and fibrous elements in the center and then added a pat of butter, teaspoon of brown sugar and a drizzle of brown sugar. I put the halves in a Pyrex baking dish with half an inch of water to avoid burning the bottom of the squash rind — a key addition, as I’ve burned them in the past in the absence of that moisture. 75 minutes later, these were delicious.
I began caramelizing a roughly sliced Vidalia onion on a side burner forty minutes earlier for an accompaniment, occasionally stirring to allow the onion to cook down evenly. As soon as the fish was about to go on, I removed the onion and added a tablespoon of butter and 2 ounces of grapefruit juice. I allowed this sauce to reduce while the fish cooked.
I heated 3 tablespoons of safflower oil in a large cast iron pan, allowing it to just begin to smoke.
I dredged the wing in flour that had already been seasoned with salt and pepper and shaking to remove the excess. I laid it gently in the skillet (remember: hot oil!) and covered with a spatter guard. 3 minutes per side and then on to a rack to allow the oil to drip off.
I was sloppy about presentation (the photo above is not of my dish, I’m afraid, as credit for that image is due to the excellent stephencooks.com) but anyone following these steps would do well to take care moving the wing, as it will flake quite easily at this point.
If I had it to do over, I’d allow a harder crust to form on the fish, which means allowing the oil to get hotter before I added the fillet.
That being said, this was absolutely delicious. Whole Foods gave me an unexpected present, as well: the wing had been deboned! That relieved me of the onerous task of removing the cartilaginous elements.
I was struck again by how similar the taste of the skate flesh was to lobster, though it wasn’t quite in the class of a fresh bug pulled out of a pot of steaming sea water.
Can you tell I’m already looking ahead to summer?
