I first learned about skate at the beginning of my career at Le Cirque in NYC. We received skate wings weekly & it was my responsibility to clean the wings, then gently poach & cool them in court bouillon.
Cooking Skate Wings
I've always found it challenging to peel or slice the skin off of skate wings.
I enjoy sautéed, 'peeled' skate wings with brown or black butter & capers very much.
I still prepare skate wings in this fashion, but my new, preferred method is a simple curry marinade for an hour, then searing the wings on a cast iron grate with a small amount of oil. I get the curry nice and brown, the skin splits and it's very easy to see when the flesh is cooked through.
This is so much easier than cleaning the wings raw or poaching and provides a nice, flavorful crust & moist, juicy flesh. It's super easy to scrape the skin and meat using a fork or spoon.
Prep Time: 3o min
Cooking Time: 30 min (grilling/ resting)
Yield: 4 portions
Ingredients
4 ea. Skate wings
Seasoning:
6 oz. Olive oil
1 Tbsp Black pepper
1/2 tsp Ginger powder
1/2 Cup Curry powder
tt Kosher Salt
lemons & hot sauce
How to prepare Seared Skate Wings
Step 1
Mix the curry spices and oil together and coat the skate wings well. Let marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Step 2
Heat a cast iron grill pan to medium high; scrub the grill pan and then gently oil to avoid sticking.
Step 3
Place the skate wings onto the grill pan and sear about 6-8 minutes; Invert and continue cooking to reach the desired temperature you enjoy. You'll see the skin splitting and the flesh on the sides to determine doneness-or use a thermometer and cook to 150F.
Step 4
Serve the skate with fresh lemon and hot sauce.
My mother liked to cook a variety of fritters, with leftover holiday ham or turkey but in the summer she prepared delicious squash flower or corn fritters which were more like savory pancakes and inspired this recipe.
Beyond Pesto: The Art and Science of Growing & Cooking with Herbs
I've been growing figs for more than 50 years! In fact, I have about a dozen fig trees in my yard. Several are from cuttings propagated from trees at my parent's home and one fig tree is from a cutting of a fig tree in Monticello! I like to think Thomas Jefferson and I enjoy delicious figs from the same tree...
I liked to begin each class day of Skills Development class at the CIA with a quote. One of my favorites went something like this, 'You can walk to the corn fields but you must run back to the kitchen'. Basically it speaks to the sugars in sweet quickly converting to starch when it's harvested. We Chefs know a thing or two about food chemistry...
More and more the loss of technique and understanding of traditional ingredients is destroying the soul of American kitchens. But there is hope.
I agreed to be the Chef Advisor for the Gourmet Society at the CIA, an amazing honor to work with some of the best and brightest students. We planned to demonstrate preparing pesto with a mortar and pestle and also with a food processor-then evaluate them both side by side. We all suspected that the food processor would aerate the pesto, possibly the heat generated would be a problem- One student brought in a molcajete, the traditional mortar from Mexico, made from volcanic rock used for grinding spices, making salsas, moles, etc... I'm not sure this was the preferred mortar and pestle to use, these days I often use a marble mortar and pestle and make small batches. The 'mortar and pestle' pesto was much more delicious than the food processor version at the CIA that day.
I was born to sauté... I remember thinking this and smiling when I finally made my way up in the kitchen brigade to the Saucier spot. I loved the pulse of the kitchen, working the saute station with a dozen sauté pans on the flat top, delicious stocks and mother sauces held hot in the steam table and carefully prepared mise en place so I could make delicious meals for the customers... one order or two at the time. Everything was cooked with love and respect.
I remember my days working as chef/manager for food service cafeterias. People loved muffins for breakfast! We used dry muffin mixes or large tubs of various, premade muffin batters; scooped the batter into muffin tins and made dozens of mini, regular and large sizes daily. I love topping the muffins with garnishes like oats, chocolate chips, streusel, nuts etc... Morning Glory was my favorite, I bet I baked thousands of muffins in my five years at Gardner Merchant! I think my 'go to' muffin is a delicious, corn muffin grilled with butter on a plancha-New Jersey diner style!
I remember learning to make an emulsion sauce for called Rouille at Le Cirque. It's one of my favorites! Rouille is a delicious, classic French garlic mayonnaise served with bouillabaisse, a famous, French fish soup. I was taught to use EVOO, saffron, garlic etc... and cooked potato in the recipe. Other famous emulsion sauces include aioli, vinaigrettes, dressings, etc...
Biscotti translates to 'twice baked' and apparently was a popular snack for Roman soldiers since the biscotti lasted for days without getting stale. I read Christopher Columbus had biscotti stored away on his voyage to America... In Tuscany, biscotti and vin santo is considered by many to be a perfect pairing. I enjoyed this combination at a cafe in Florence years ago... I love dipping crunchy biscotti into a cup of strong black coffee.