Skate in the Fridge!

[FoodMuse]

Local fish guy says this was looking really good today, so I bought it. I've never cooked it before. Google turned up some good recipes, but thought I'd check in here. Any tips?

Do they have many bones?

Can I just pan fry in some great butter. I have both flour and cornstarch- Which should I dredge with?

In the house I have :

capers, lemon, onion(no shallot sadly), some leftover roasted garlic.

1box frozen spinach

Thanks!

[jackal10]

No need to dust it.

Fry gently in butter on both sides

take out of the pan, and wipe out the pan

Melt fresh butter and heat until it begins to brown (beurre noisette)

Add vinegar and capers

Pour over the skate

Serve, with potatoe and a green salad.

[FoodMuse]

Hi Jackal10,

Fry gently? Thanks for that comment; I thought I should get the pan screaming hot with olive oil and cook it fast.

Beurre noisette. Yes, I have Lurpak butter.

Yum.

-Grace

[DerekW]

Skate wing? it has a big piece of cartilage, rather than bones. It's not difficult to fillet the flesh off the cartilage before you cook it.

What Jackal10 said, although I'd use the juice from your lemon instead of his vinegar. I like to toss a few croutons in the lemony butter, and have been known to finely dice some green chili pepper to add to or replace the capers. That said, you have the capers and didn't mention a chili

[jackal10]

Skate has no bones, only a sort of gelatinous equivalent.

You can poach or oven cook before adding the butter

Yumm

[FoodMuse]

Hullo!

Did someone say gelatinous cartilage. Can I eat that?

Grace

[pounce]

Eat it soon. If you smell ammonia you can soak in milk for 15 minutes.. If you are eating it and you get that amonia flavor don't worry. If it's really fresh it should not have the ammonia scent....but it's common and in some countries they like it very very ripe. Not me.

[rickster]

Sometimes the cartilage is removed by the fishguy before you get it, like they often remove salmon bones. You should easily be able to tell. I don't think it is edible.

[markk]

I would flour it and then sautee it in the butter to a nice crispy golden, and then do exactly what Jackal says.

This isn't one I cooked, but it's how I like it to look:

It doesn't have any bones - rather, the piece of meat that you see lies atop a piece of cartilage, and theres another piece of meat (fillet, for lack of a better word) on the underside of the cartilage. But I don't find it that easy to do myself- I've mutilated quite a few trying. But you can always cook them on the bone. You just won't be able to crisp both sides of each "fillet", just the two outside faces.

[Shalmanese]

I cook it on the bone. It's ridiculously easy to pick off the meat once cooked and the bones add flavor. I do like flouring it though for an crispy scrust.

[FoodMuse]

Wonderful dinner! I lightly dusted with flour panfried with lots of butter. Delicious. Threw some capers and lemon juice to deglaze pan. Yum. I think using a great butter was key.

What a flavorful fish; lots of bones, though.

You were all a great help. Thnx again.

Grace

[Doodad]

My dear wife one time bought the wings thinking that was the edible part of the fish entirely. We tried, but in the end called out for food. (Her maiden name is Skates so we found it funny).

About a week later we saw skate for sale at the same fish market in its real form. It sure looked much more edible and filling than that marine bat wing we tried to cook.

[Peter the eater]

I'll add that skate is very nice off the gas grill. I love the darkened crunch on the exterior and the moist and mild shark-like texture on the inside.

This discussion has got me wondering about varieties of skates, small versus big (and they can get very big), warm water versus cold water, etc. I'll have to grill my fishmonger next time we meet, so to speak.

[craig001]

Skate is good. I do a saute with a parmesan panko crust. If you can get it dressed then it is worth the money. The last time I picked some up at a lcoal fishmonger it was not. While not difficult to dress you lose about half the weight was waste.

[Magictofu]

I like to steam skate with ginger and green onions and then serve it with a bit of soy sauce and rice vinegar.

Otherwise, brown butter is an excellent choice... as with a lot of fishes.

[markk]

My fish market had some beautiful skate (dressed, i.e. off the bone)

Which I dusted with Wondra flour and sauteed in olive oil with a little buter

When both sides were crisped, I removed it to a hot plate, and deglazed the pan with white wine, and added organic lemon, and capers, let it bubble for a moment, and then plated it with the sauce over it. The sides were roasted cauliflower and roasted cremini mushrooms, and though I could kill the person who plated the sides for me, I'll post the photos anyway

It was delicious, though I can only show the ones that didn't break apart when I turned them.