Search for roasted skate - 6 results found

roasted skate, tomato, mustard, tiny celery; potato, chervil

I should have halved the potatoes, to help them appear as sweet as they tasted.

 

Paul pointed me toward the whole skate wing lying in the iced tub, but I had already (almost) decided that the skate was what I would be taking home. One cooked with its cartilage, and, I think, at least some of the bone, is definitely more tasty than it is when it’s been filleted, and that means it’s very very good.

There was also something entirely new to our kitchen, a harbinger of spring, which is officially only a few days away, some baby celery, the first apium graveolens of the season. The crunch is great, and the leaves are less bitter than they are when full grown.

  • six Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, halved, tossed gently inside a shallow bowl with less than a tablespoon of olive oil and less than one crushed peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia, arranged, their cut sides down, inside a medium size glazed ceramic oven pan and roasted at 400º for about 10 minutes, after which one 20-ounce skate wing from Pura Vida Seafood, untrimmed, with cartilage and the bone where it had attached to the body wholly intact (although, before cooking it I had cut it into 2 halves, removed most of the bone and used a scissors to trim the lacy edges of the wing along the lines demonstrated in this short video) seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, transferred to the pan after moving the tomatoes to the edges, and roasted for another 15 minutes or so, when a mixture of a tablespoon of olive oil, half a tablespoon of lemon juice, half a teaspoon of good Dijon mustard, and more than a half tablespoon of rinsed salted Sicilian capers that had been whisked together just before was poured over the fish and tomatoes, the pan returned to the oven for 2 or 3 minutes, the casserole removed, its contents arranged on 2 plates, the tomatoes next to or on the skate, both garnished with the finely chopped stem and tender leaves of one small stalk of spring celery from Windfall Farms, small lemon quarters placed to the side of the plates
  • one pound of very sweet small pinto potatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed, boiled unpeeled in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained [and although not halved although they should have been], dried in the still-warm large vintage Corning Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with a chopped very small ‘yellow shallot’ from Norwich Meadows Farm, a little Trader Joe’s Italian Reserve extra virgin olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper, garnished with micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • the wine was a French (Bordeaux) white, Château Haut-Dambert Entre Seux-Mers (60% Sauvignon Blanc, 25% Sauvignon Gris, 15% Muscadelle), from Foragers Wines
  • the music was the album, ‘The Twenty-Fifth Hour: The Chamber Music of Thomas Adès’, performed by the Calder Quartet and Thomas Adès, piano

tomato/chili-roasted skate, mustard/caper sauce; turnips

Of course they were beautiful; it’s one of the reasons I love this fish.

They were also delicious, but to get there I had to cook them.

  • six Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods Market, halved, tossed gently inside a shallow bowl with less than a tablespoon of olive oil and less than one crushed peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia, arranged, their cut sides down, inside a medium glazed ceramic oven pan and roasted for about 10 minutes, after which two 10-ounce unfilleted skate wings from American Seafood Company with cartilage where they were attached to the main body wholly intact, seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, transferred to the pan, after moving the tomatoes to the edges, then roasted for another 15 minutes or so, when a mixture of a tablespoon of olive oil, half a tablespoon of lemon juice, half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and more than a half tablespoon of rinsed salted Sicilian capers that had just been whisked together was poured over the fish and tomatoes, the pan returned to the oven for 2 or 3 minutes, removed, its contents arranged on 2 plates, the tomatoes next to or on the skate, both garnished with micro nasturtium leaves from Two Guys from Woodbridge, lemon quarters placed to the side of the plates

  • one bunch of Hakurei turnips (or ‘Japanese turnips’) from Willow Wisp Farm, their quite tiny roots separated from the beautiful greens, leaving a bit of stem on each, scrubbed, sautéed inside a heavy antique medium-size tin-lined high-sided copper pot in a little olive oil, in which 2 bruised rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm had been softened, until the vegetables had begun to color, the roots removed and set aside while the washed and very roughly cut greens were introduced to the pan and heated until barely wilted, the turnips then returned to the pan and everything seasoned with sea salt,  freshly-ground black pepper, and a dusting of dried Sicilian peperoncino from Buon Italia
  • the wine was an Oregon (Willamette Valley) white, Scott Kelley Pinot Gris Willamette 2017, from Naked Wines
  •  the music was Stefano Landi’s 1631 opera, ‘Il Sant’Alessio’, performed by William Christie directing the Choir and Orchestra of Les Arts Florissants

tomato/chili-roasted skate, mustard/caper sauce; chard

I’ve been cooking skate wing for decades, but at least since initiating this food blog I’ve always resisted preparing it in the only way it seems everyone knows it, mostly because it is the only way everyone knows it: sautéed in brown butter and served with capers.

Last night, for a fresh thick un-filleted skate wing (a left-wing, I figure), to make it easy on myself, and to make it quick, I turned to a recipe that included the capers, as well as something that looked and tasted a bit like brown butter, but wasn’t.

It really was easy, and pretty quick, but it was also a much richer dish than the classic (I improvised a bit on the basic recipe I had found, and I also had some other great comestibles to work with).

Oh, although it probably wasn’t necessary, as the skate wing was a bit on the small side, I also bought half a dozen scallops while at the fish stand. although I didn’t know what I was going to do with them until I had started preparing the meal. Only while writing this post did I realize that in grilling them and placing them next to the skate I may have summoned up the old ‘fish story’ (surely apocryphal) about unscrupulous fish sellers sometimes using cookie cutters to create scallops out of skate wings, which is the much cheaper catch on any day.

  • one large green heirloom tomato from Eckerton Hill Farm, sliced horizontally into 6 sections, tossed gently inside a shallow bowl with less than a tablespoon of olive oil and less than one crushed peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia, arranged inside a medium glazed ceramic oven pan and roasted for about 10 minutes, after which one whole skate wingfrom American Seafood Company (unfilleted, but with the bone removed from the end where it was attached to the body), seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, transferred to the pan, moving the tomatoes to one side, and roasted for another 15 minutes or so, when a mixture of a tablespoon of olive oil, half a tablespoon of lemon juice, half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and more than a half tablespoon of rinsed salted Sicilian capers, a section of 2 different finely chopped seasoning peppers, a small aji dulce pepper and a small (sweet) yellow Grenada seasoning pepper, both from Eckerton Hill Farm, that had been whisked together, was poured over the fish and tomatoes, the pan returned to the oven for 2 or 3 minutes, removed, its contents arranged on the plates, the tomatoes next to the skate, 3 sea scallops, also from American Seafood Company, that had been generously seasoned with salt and pepper and briefly pan-grilled, placed on top of the tomatoes, lemon quarters placed to the side of the plates

  • a large number of loose chard leaves from Keith’s Farm wilted inside a a large enameled cast iron pot in a couple tablespoons of Portuguese olive oil, a house brand of Whole Foods Market, in which 2 gently crushed and halved rocambole garlic cloves, also from Keith’s Farm, had first been heated and softened slightly, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, finished with a little lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil
  • the wine was from California (Napa Valley), Matt Iaconis Napa Valley Chardonnay 2017, from Naked Wines
  • the music was the album, ‘L’Anonyme Parisien‘, works by the French baroque composer, Charles Dollé

skate wing, tomatillos, lemon mustard sauce; potatoes, rue

It was delicious, even if the photo reveals it was a little colorless. I’ve usually used tomatoes, in fact usually bright red tomatoes, when I’ve roasted whole skate wings, and I did bring home some small golden cherry tomatoes that afternoon, but in the evening I remembered that I’d been hoarding some tomatillos, which are nightshades, but not tomatoes, for a couple of weeks. I checked them out and found that they both looked and tasted as good as when I had worked with a few on the previous Sunday, so I decided the familiar recipe could handle a change in one of its major ingredients.

The tomatillos had been purchased at the Union Square Greenmarket on October 14, over 2 weeks before I finally incorporated them in this meal.  Until I looked into their storage life expectancy on line the next day I had thought my experience represented an extraordinary survival, but nature often knows how to pack her things, and in this case her design, the dry, leafy husk in which they are wrapped and to which they remain attached until ready to be used, did its job well; also, I had kept them in an open paper bag in the crisper, and I talked to them regularly.

The other novelty that was a part of this meal was the herb rue, today more celebrated in literature and scary medical accounts than found in actual food preparation. I’d seen it before in the Union Square Greenmarket but had always passed on it, but the little bunches I found at the Stokes Farm stand on Friday finally won me over, after briefly checking the internet information my phone to see if I would be likely to find something to do with it.

The results were conclusive: It was positively super on plain boiled potatoes, a very pungent, very unusual and tasty flavor I expect to enjoying more in the future.

  • a generous number of small to medium tomatillos from Ecketon Hill Farm, halved, tossed gently inside a shallow bowl with less than a tablespoon of olive oil and less than a whole crushed dried Itria-Sirissi chili, pepperoncino di Sardegna intero from Buon Italia, arranged, cut sides down, inside a large enameled cast iron oven pan and roasted at 400º for about 10 minutes, after which two 11.5-ounce whole skate wings (the cartilage and joint bone where they had been attached to the main body intact) from American Seafood Company, seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, transferred to the pan, after moving the tomatillos to the edges, roasted for another 15 minutes or so, a whisked together mixture of one tablespoon of olive oil, half a tablespoon of lemon juice, half a teaspoon of a good Dijon mustard, and more than a half tablespoon of rinsed salted Sicilian capers poured over the fish and tomatillos before the pan was returned to the oven for 2 or 3 minutes, then removed, its contents arranged on 2 plates, the tomatillos next to or slightly covering the edges of the skate, both garnished with micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge, with lemon quarters placed to the side of the plates

  • eleven or 12 ounces of medium red potatoes from Windfall Farms, scrubbed, boiled unpeeled in generously-salted water until barely cooked through, drained, halved, dried in the still-warm large vintage Corning  Pyrex Flameware blue-glass pot in which they had cooked, tossed with a little Whole Foods house Portuguese olive oil, seasoned with local P.E. & D.D. Seafood Company sea salt and some ground pepper, tossed with some beautiful rue from Stokes Farm, chopped
  • the wine was a New Zealand (Hawkes Bay) white, Rod Easthope Reserve Hawkes Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2018, from Naked Wines
  • the music was Jordi Savall’s intense album, ‘Orient-Occident Vol 2 – Hommage a la Syrie

polenta-coated skate, ramps, lemon, herbs; rainbow chard

It was a something of a palate cleanser after our rich night at the opera the day before.

  • seven small skate wings (14 ounces) from P.E. & D.D., the largest of them halved to even out their number,  coated all over with a local coarse polenta (‘Stone-Ground Polenta’ from Wild Hive Farm Community Grain Project) that had been seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, sautéed in olive oil and a bit of butter, for a couple of minutes or so on each side, inside a heavy enameled cast iron oven pan, then removed to 2 plates and kept warm while a little more than a tablespoons of butter was added to the pan, along with the chopped bulbs and sliced leaves of half an ounce or so of young ramps from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, stirred over a now-lowered flame, the alliums allowed to only sweat a bit before the heat was turned off altogether and another 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter added, along with the juice from half of a Whole Foods Market organic lemon, some chopped lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and a bit of chopped parsley from Stokes Farm, all stirred to blend together and make a proper sauce to be divided among the ‘wings’
  • slices of a Bien Cuit ‘Campagne’ traditional sourdough from Foragers Market
  • one bunch of rainbow chard from Norwich Meadows Farm, wilted in a couple tablespoons of Portuguese olive oil from Whole Foods Market in which 2 small Rocambole garlic cloves from Keith’s Farm had first been heated and slightly softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, finished with a little lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil
  • the wine was an Austrian (Burgenland) white, Furmint, Wenzel 2015, from Astor Wines
  • the music was Hans Werner Henze, 1974 masterpiece, ‘Tristan‘, an orchestral work composed, for pianotape and full orchestra, a homage to Wagner’s ‘Tristan und Isolde‘, performed by Homero Francesch, the Kölner Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester, Hans Werner Henze conducting [it can be heard here in another performance]