When Poached and allowed to grow cold, skate sets beautifully into a firm but giving fish whose natural structure shreds perfectly for our salad-making purposes.
Way back in 2008, I made the only other skate recipe in “The Cookbook”, which was Skate, Capers, and Bread. I’d never worked with or eaten skate before, but the flakey white fish found a home in my heart almost instantly. Sadly, the common skate has been fished into endangerment, and so I had promised myself that I’d not cook or order skate again after making this recipe. It’s just a shame that this dish isn’t nearly as captivating as the last one. I’ll explain at the end of the post.
A quick trip to the supermarket and we had everything we needed to assemble the salad. First up, a poaching broth for the skate.
In this pan you will find a lot of components. Let’s see: there is some white wine, a little lemon zest, a whole head of sliced fennel, a sliced onion, two stalks of chopped celery, a bisected head of garlic, a bunch of curly parsley and last but not least, a few scant peppercorns. Whew!
One of the skate wings we’d bought was just picture perfect. Excellent color, impeccably skinned, and ultra fresh. The second skate wing wasn’t as photogenic, but it too was of high quality.
Carefully I slipped the first skate wing into the pan and added just enough water to cover it. The pan was brought up to a up to a boil, and from there down to a simmer. As the skate poached away, my wife and I started working on the anchovy dressing.
Into my mini prep went twenty anchovy fillets, multiple cloves of garlic, a healthy splash of red wine vinegar, a good amount of olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper. A few pulses later…
…and the dressing was done. It’s amazing how many powerful flavors you can pack together harmoniously.
By this time, the skate had poached enough, but there’s something Mr. Henderson mentions that confuses me. He instructs to check that the flesh comes away from the bone, and I’m just guessing that two times I’ve bought skate that they were pre-boned. Is leaving the bones in skate wings common, or are boneless skate wings the norm?
With the skate done, I turned the heat off and let the pan sit until everything in it had cooled.
After an hour things had dropped in temperature. The skate wings were slowly pulled out of the poaching liquid and segmented into strips. They went into a bowl of curly endive, some arugula, a handful of chopped curly parsley and a small amount of capers. To that I added the industrial strength anchovy dressing, and tossed everything together until it all had an even coating.
A fine looking little salad if you don’t mind me saying so. It was right after the first bite that my heart sank. I’m not sure if I had left the skate in the poaching liquid too long, or maybe I had added too much fennel, but the sweet and delicate flavor of the skate was completely overpowered by the essence of anise. Sure, I’ll throw back a glass or two of Absinthe if the mood strikes me, but even today I’ll leave the black licorice jelly beans for someone else to enjoy. The rest of the salad was nice and peppery, the odd caper here and there adding briny goodness and the always welcome flavor of garlic and anchovies made itself known through the dressing. But it all seemed pointless when the skate didn’t taste like skate.
If you’re a lover of licorice then perhaps this salad is right up your alley. Me? I’m wishing I had cooked the skate in brown butter yet again.
One down, fifty four to go.
Terrific post! I’ve never cooked skate, but I have to say you have me intrigued. It looks fantastic.
I’m a fishmonger and a regular fish eater and all the skate I’ve sold in my market or purchased at others has always been “bone” in and skin on (their skeletons are actually made of cartilage, like sharks).
I just got home from rome and putarella with the same anchovie dressing was one of my favorite dishes, so i cant wait to try it with poached skate.
Thanks
That is a helluva lot of fennel to use for a salad like that. Wonder if there was a misprint in the cookbook?
Oh, and skates are all over the place in San Francisco Bay. Come here in summer and we’ll catch some. Or turn green with envy when I catch skate after skate after skate when I visit my mum in Gloucester in a few weeks…
Ryan,
Fergus was featured on ‘MasterChef Australia’ the other night. He was demonstrating crispy pork tails to the contestants and also had a mashed potato stuffed trotter and a pigs ear salad.
I can get you a copy of the episode if you’re interested.
I had the same thought as Hank – too much fennel. And the dressing is very strong, as well. I’d probably dress only the greens, and then place the fish pieces on top.
I do like the idea of the skate salad, too bad it was disappointing. Although few things compare to skate in brown butter…
Kristi, hello! How have you been? I really, really need to get to one of the local meet-ups. I’m been a hermit for way too long. Skate is amazing, and if you can get a hold of some of the sustainable varieties, BUY IT!
Matt, that makes more sense. I’m a little irritated that I didn’t do more research now. I’m guessing that I’m buying the wings de-boned. Thanks for the info!
Jason, I’m so jealous of your trip! Let me know how your version turns out, please.
Hank! Speaking of jealous… And you catch them all the time? I’m gonna cry over here. Folks, check out Hank’s version of skate wings and brown butter here. It looks awesome!
Paul, I’d love to see a copy of that show. I’ll shoot you an e-mail here in a few minutes, thanks!
Chef Keem! I think you and Hank are both right. There was just so much darn fennel. Maybe that’s what Mr. Henderson wants for the dish. I’d really like to try this recipe again with less fennel, just to see how it’d turn out.
Camille! I’m right there with you. Skate and brown butter is my #1 all time favorite cooked fish dish.
Man, I really missed replying to everyone.
I’m late in reading this, but skate wings have a top and bottom fillet, separated by a layer of cartilage. The top piece is thicker and wider, the bottom piece thinner and falls apart a bit. You probably had a top and bottom piece.
I learned this reading about Justo the fish butcher at Le Bernardin, from the chapter in Bourdain’s Medium Raw.
Ah, Mr. Shaw! I need to pick that book up, but I’m waiting until I can get the Man himself to sign it.
Hi
In the UK, skate used to be the cheapest fish – hence someone who always buys cheap things is a cheapskate. Here, skate is always sold on the “bone” and usually served on the “bone”. The skate wing’s bones are actually not bone at all, but cartilage (like many of the bony parts of other fish related to the shark). The flesh is sweet, soft and tender and comes away from the bone easily when cooked. The traditional way of cooking it is with a beurre noir. Have a look at the links below of what skate looks like on the bone.
Simon
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/binary_data/13267_skate_wings_contra.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/fish-detail_skate-wings_3_43_0_1.html&usg=__ON1evgwsTdPDTv-VkmS3iRNH00U=&h=480&w=640&sz=30&hl=en&start=32&sig2=G9psKUJtGnN45bDpKUMbmg&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=Y3C5OlLr-rVzFM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dskate%2Bwing%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=yV1ATI91jYfiBs-enaQP
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2374/2150376231_e306600f32.jpg&imgrefurl=http://fivespiceduck.blogspot.com/2008/04/skate-wing-and-coconut-madeleines.html&usg=__4EUsWjDsIUnY3k30Us2PPK18AiQ=&h=333&w=500&sz=96&hl=en&start=3&sig2=uooxHQ25pVoK4-7Z3JCxcA&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=HHPiIElpgFg2YM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dskate%2Bwing%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=f11ATIzUBoyU4gbE0KCjDw
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.loving-long-island.com/image-files/skinned-skate-wing.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.loving-long-island.com/dogfish-skate.html&usg=__UvanfCVkj9MMY7IWygKpZaf0YuA=&h=397&w=496&sz=45&hl=en&start=4&sig2=pg0yTnPnF-32i9iNn4wNOw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=AlmvSjhKBnSSLM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dskate%2Bwing%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=f11ATIzUBoyU4gbE0KCjDw
Excellent, thanks for the insightful comment Simon!