Nonetheless, the skate and its delicious wings are definitely worth appreciating. A comparative rarity on menus this side of the Atlantic, skate wing is fairly common in French bistrots and used to be a regular on the menus of fish restaurants across the UK, but the common and white skates are now critically endangered in UK waters and are officially listed by the Marine Conservation Society as “fish to avoid”. In the Americas, almost the reverse is true, at least for the time being, as meatier fish tend to dominate fish menus at the expense of the more delicate white fish, the Pacific coast from Mexico to Alaska is full of the big (or giant – it can grow up to 8 feet in wingspan!) and longnose skates which make for some fine dining.

Skates are a cartilaginous fish in the ray family (you know, stingrays, manta rays, etc.) which is linked comparatively closely (in evolutionary terms) with the shark family, meaning that they are relatively slow breeding and give birth to live young, and are therefore more susceptible to overfishing than the more prolific egg-producing gill fish.

But don’t let this put you off trying skate. Just make sure to ask your fishmonger where the skate he’s selling comes from, and if he doesn’t know, make him find out for you. All good butchers know the provenance of their meats, so why should fishmongers not be as knowledgeable about their wares?

When purchasing skate, make sure it’s fresh and without any ammoniacal odor, as for some reason I could find no explanation for they tend to go off faster than normal white fish. Also, you should ask your fishmonger to remove the “bones” from the skate for you. This makes it easier to cook and eat because the wings contain a fan of bones that can otherwise be a chore to remove with a knife and fork.

The classic preparation is pan-fried au beurre noisette, or with a brown butter and caper sauce, which adds richness and acid to what is basically a flaky white fish, but because for us a fish meal tends to be a cathartic measure (albeit an enjoyable one) designed to make us feel healthier, we combined our pan-fried skate wing with a salad of finely-sliced fennel, fennel tops and tomato, and some steamed asparagus with a simple vinaigrette. However, feel free to also enjoy it in the typical manner as a little fat not only helps the fish remain moist, it brings out the best flavors of the delicate skate flesh.

Pan-Fried Skate Wing with Fennel & Tomato Salad (serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 whole skate, bones removed (8-10oz, uncooked)

1cup regular (not extra virgin) olive oil, or canola/vegetable oil

1 fennel bulb, sliced finely. Reserve fennel tops and chop finely also.

1 large tomato, diced

1/2 fresh corn cob, boiled and kernels removed

3tbsp good olive oil

1tbsp lemon juice

1tsp smooth dijon mustard

3tbsp plain flour

salt & white pepper to taste

Recipe:

Put fennel (including tops), tomato and corn into a non-reactive bowl and mix well with vinaigrette. Allow to sit and steep for at least 30minutes or as long as overnight.

Heat oil in a frying pan to medium-high, around 350F.

Dust skate with flour and season with salt. Pat off excess and gently lay in the hot oil until nicely browned and crisp all over (2-3mins per side, approx.)

Remove fish to a plate and gently pat dry with paper towels. Dress with the fennel salad and add an extra splash of olive oil to moisten the whole thing a bit, then serve.

Check out these other posts you might enjoy:

Orecchiette with Sausage and Kale

Lebanese Food in A Small Brooklyn Kitchen

Another Easy Meal – Tortilla Soup

Something’s Fishy ‘Round Here: Livornese Fish Stew (il cacciucco alla Livornese)

The most popular ways to serve classic Romesco with vegetables is with the famous Spanish calçots. Calçots are a variety of longer, thicker and sweeter scallions that are also grown in Tarragona, Catalonia (a perfect local pairing!) and are produced in a very specific and time-consuming way with a season lasting only from January to March. Every January or February the calçots are harvested and many Catalonians celebrate this with a huge calçotada or a kind of calcot fiesta. At this big party, Catalonians sit at long tables and consume pounds of calçots which have been charred on a grill of burning vines and then wrapped in newspapers in order to finish cooking in steam. The participants dip the fleshy, sweet insides of the calçots into romesco and wash it down with copious amounts of red wine. Meat and bread are often grilled right after the calcots are. I am hoping to one day taste these beauties but mostly I’m excited to one day be part of a calçotada.

If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the festivities of a calçotada, check out this great YouTube video. You don’t need to understand Spanish to understand it.

Anyways, back to the meal we made. Earlier I mentioned that I called my sauce a Romesco-esque sauce because I kind of was forced to use what I had in my kitchen. I did not have any of the dried sweet peppers called nyora which are normally used but that was probably because they are very hard to come by here in America. In fact, I didn’t even have the substitute that is often used here such as an ancho pepper, so I used what I had (and, purists, I know you’ll kill me because Romesco should never be spicy but I needed to use up a half of salmonella-free jalapeno). Also, Romesco should always be made with fresh tomatoes and I didn’t have any so out came the jar of crushed tomatoes. I also decided to thinly slice some fennel and an onion and sweat them down slowly in a pan with some olive oil. After a half hour of slowly sweating down, you get the sweetest most delicious “relish” which I topped our grilled fish with as well.

In the end, all the flavors melded together perfectly. Maybe it was the crunchiness of the grilled trout skin, possibly the moist trout flesh mixed with the smokey, sweet and nuttiness of the Romesco-esque sauce or it could have been the bliss of having a bit of crunchy potatoes with the moist fish along with the sweetness of the onion/fennel relish? Whatever it was, this meal was a homerun. I hope you try your hand at making Romesco and maybe you have a good story of attending a calçotada?

Feel free to check two of our good blogger friends version of Romesco – Kalofagas, Nuria’s and Michelle’s.

GRILLED RAINBOW TROUT WITH ROMESCO-ESQUE SAUCE AND FENNEL-ONION RELISH – serves 2

Ingredients for fish and fennel-onion relish:

• 1 whole rainbow trout, gutted and cleaned
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• salt and pepper
• 1 fennel, thinly sliced (use a mandoline – it’s easier)
• 1 onion, thinly sliced (I used vidalia onion for it’s sweetness

Ingredients for Romesco Sauce:

• 6 tablespoons crushed tomatoes (or 4 roasted tomatoes)
• 2 tablespoons Spanish sweet pimenton (or sweet paprika)
• 10 Marcona almonds (if using other type of almond, make sure they have been pan-roasted for a minutes and the skin is removed)
• 1 piece of toasted white bread (crust removed)
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1/2 of a pepper, traditionally a dried red pepper (I used jalapeno – not traditional at all, but gave it a little kick)
• 1/2 head of roasted garlic
• 1 sprig of mint
• olive oil
• pinch of salt

What to do:

1. Heat about 1/4 cup of olive oil in a pan and on medium to medium-low heat, cook your onions and fennel down for about 20 to 30 minutes until very soft and translucent. Do not let them brown and make sure you stir every few minutes.
2. Roast your 1/2 head of garlic in a 475 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes (or until soft inside). Allow to cool before using.
3. Make your Romesco by adding the bread, almonds and pepper first and grind up finely in the food processor. Next add the other ingredients (don’t forget to squeeze the roasted garlic out of the skins!) except the olive oil and salt. Blend until smooth. Finally, with the food processor going, slowly add the olive oil in a slow stream until the Romesco is thick and fully emulsified. Taste for salt and add to your liking.
4. Rub your whole fish with the butter and season inside and out with salt and pepper. Throw on a hot grill and cook until firm on both sides (about 5 to 7 minutes per side depending on size of fish).
5. Eat fish whole or fillet the fish and top with some romesco sauce and a tablespoon of the onion/fennel relish. Serve with greens or crispy roasted potatoes. Drizzle some olive oil all over before serving.

Check out some other posts you may enjoy:

• SPANISH (ASTURIAN) OXTAIL WITH FRIED POTATOES
• FUSILLI WITH SALSA DI NOCI AND MUSHROOMS (WALNUT PESTO)
• BRAISED PORK CHOPS WITH LIME AND OLIVES
• Cabrales Cheese: It’s a Bit of an Animal
• Daily Bread: Still Eaten Daily In Some Parts

Just to get your excitement level up even more about salt (if you aren’t already on the edge of your seat panting), I’ll continue with my brief history lesson. We kind of take salt for granted. Unless it’s fancy like that fleur de sel or that Hawaian lava salt stuff, people kind of think, “Whateva… It’s just salt” and then throw it over their left shoulder as if it were nothing or get a giggle out of loosening the lid on a shaker at a diner and watch someone use it (heee heee, teee heeee heeee!) only to waste it as it falls all over the table and floor. But salt IS something. God damn it! If salt was a person, she’d be older than God (salt’s the oldest known food additive), or at least Jesus. Hell, she IS God (can you imagine cooking without it?). Did you know that at certain points in time and in certain places, salt was used as currency? Wars were supposedly waged in the name of salt. Hell, Northwich, Cheshire (United Kingdom) wouldn’t be the awesome, contemporary and trendy metropolis it is today if it weren’t for their salt mines – they even have a museum dedicated to it! ***Note: My husband wanted to let you all know that the Salt Museum was so stimulating to him that on a fun, weekend trip at age seven, he fell fast asleep on a pile of salt – ok, it was a bench, but whatever.****

One of salt’s main use back in the day was in preserving fish (remember, besides salt, you also seem to take ice and refrigeration for granted – are you feeling like shit yet?) and other foods. Ever eat bacalao/bacala? Yes, thanks to the days before fridges and freezers, the Portuguese and Spanish used a “wet” method to salt-preserve their fish on-board their boats while the French and English used the ‘dry’ method by drying their fish on racks onshore (www.saltinstitute.org). Maybe this is also why salt is mentioned in the Bible 30 times?

Which leads me to the point – baking a whole fish in salt seems natural to me now. When I decided to cook this after seeing Jose Andres do it recently, I couldn’t believe how delicious this cheap, easy and simple way of cooking a fish could be. Please, I beg you to give this a shot. I’ve read that you can cook chicken and squid as well as many other things in a salt crust. I recommend a whole fish mainly because you can fillet it and remove or not eat the skin. Yes, you remove most of the salt from the fish after it has been cooked, but there is still a very, very salty residue on the skin. Just eat the moist meat under the salty skin with just a squeeze of fresh lemon and a drizzle of really good olive oil. So rustic (see picture – I couldn’t really plate this in a pretty way), so “salt-of-the-earth” kind of a meal (pun kind of intended) and so freaking easy. Paired with some crunchy, spicy okra fritters and you’ve got a great and pretty healthy meal. This is also a great meal to have around Lent or Easter (meat free) – kind of seems a bit Biblical to me.

SALT CRUSTED WHOLE SNAPPER WITH OKRA FRITTERS AND LOUISIANA REMOULADE – Serves 2

For the Fish:

• 1 2-lb whole fish (we used snapper)
• 1/2 lemon sliced up
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves (optional)
• 1 big box of kosher salt
• water

For the okra fritters:

• 2 cups sliced okra (thinly sliced)
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• milk (enough to moisten batter if necessary)
• salt and pepper
• pinch of cayanne pepper
• pinch of garlic powder
• veggie oil for frying

For the Remoulade (this makes alot):

• 1 cup light mayo
• 1/2 cup dijon mustard (if you have creole mustard, even better)
• 1/2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced
• 1 stalk celery, thinly diced
• parsley, chopped
• juice of 1/4 lemon
• salt and pepper

What to do:

1. Prep your remoulade so it has some time to sit and the flavors can meld together. All you need to do is add every ingredient together and stir. Done.
2. Prep your okra fritters. Slice your okra and onions and saute for a few minutes to soften. Add to a bowl and allow to cool for a minute. Add your flour and cornmeal and season with some salt, pepper, cayenne and garlic powder. Stir all together. Beat your eggs with a fork and add to your veggies/flour/cornmeal mixture. Stir. If batter seems way too thick, add a bit of milk and stir. We kept our mixture pretty thick because I wanted a few thick, big fritters instead of a bunch of small ones. You want it thicker than pancake batter, but not as thick as bread dough! Reserve on side for a moment.
3. Preheat your oven to 450.
4. Now, let’s get your fish started. In a LARGE bowl, mix your salt with some water. We used about 2 pounds of salt and a cup or so of water. Lay about a half-inch to one-inch of salt in the bottom of your baking pan. Add two bay leaves (optional) for the fish to lay on.
5. Stuff the fish (where it has been gutted) and add some lemon wedges, some crushed garlic cloves and a few thyme sprigs. Try and close the ‘gap’ as much as possible – you don’t want to get too much salt in there. Lay your fish on the bed of salt and (now the fun part) pile the rest of your salt on top of the whole fish. You want it to be at least an inch or two thick.
6. Once you have your salt mound perfected, throw it in to your 450 degree oven for 25 minutes.
7. While fish is cooking, fry up your okra fritters. Put about 2 cups of vegetable oil in a pan and heat till it’s ready to fry. Using a large tablespoon, shape a fritter and cook in the oil – I pressed down on the fritter to make it more like a flat disk instead of a ball. Allow to cook about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes tops before flipping (depending on how hot your stove is). When finished, allow to drain on some paper towels and sprinkle with a bit of salt and a squeeze of lemon.
8. When your fish is ready, allow to sit for a few minutes and then break the salt crust with a sharp knife. Don’t cut into the fish, though! Throw away the bits of salt crust that come off and when you remove your fish, dust the extra salt off of it.
9. Filet your fish by slicing one side of the meat against the bone. Remove the bone and plate your filets. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice and drizzle some of your favorite extra virgin olive oil on top of the fish. Serve with some okra fritters that are topped with the remoulade. Dig in!

CHECK OUT SOME OF OUR OTHER LENT-APPROVED FISH RECIPES:

• BREAD-CRUSTED FISH WITH A LEMON BUTTER SAUCE
• WHOLE, FRIED SNAPPER WITH A PARSLEY GARLIC SAUCE
• ANISE-FLAVORED SALMON IN PARCHMENT POUCH
• LIVORNESE FISH STEW

Last week we discovered that the 5-day forecast was calling for a week’s worth of blue skies and summer-like weather. Not bad considering this past Sunday marked the beginning of Fall. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do love fall. But, like many, there’s something about summer that just excites me like no other season. Maybe it’s that whole “school mentality” thing where we are all just programmed to believe that there’s an end to work once Memorial Day comes? I changed careers 3 years ago from a corporate Marketing job to a School Counseling job in the NYC Public School System so now I’m back to feeling like I did when I was 10 year old. No more pencils, no more books! No more teacher’s dirty looks!! Even as an professional, paid adult, there still are some teacher’s I can’t stand! Maybe I know that when summer begins, I can go “down the shore”. Anyone from Philly or NJ will know what I mean… we don’t say we’re “going to the beach” we always say we’re going “down the shore”. I am lucky to have family that owns a house down the shore, only about 4 houses from the beach. Summer to me means going to the shore.

When we discovered the weather forecast, we decided that maybe our “summer ends after Labor Day” rule would be pushed aside. We loaded the car and headed “down the shore” with some of our cooking gear and ingredients. My mom and dad’s house isn’t very well-equipped with any type of cooking stuff. Our shore house is kind of a shack – a place where you don’t need to worry about washing the sand off your feet before you enter. A place where the oven broke 3 years ago and has never been fixed because you can always use the grill on the deck as your oven. The kind of place you may walk in and say, “eh, what’s all the hype about?” but then spend some time in and relax immediately. So with spices, a whole fish and our chef’s knife in tow, we headed south.

Saturday night we decided to have a seafood fest with tapas recipes in mind. It was just the two of us eating, so it ended up being a bit more than the normal tapas portions. We started with a calamari and potato with lemon and wine tapas, moved on to a Portuguese-inspired littleneck clams with white wine and chorizo (using pan con tomate – grilled bread topped w/ garlic and tomato – to ‘shoop’ up the sauce) and finished with a whole fried snapper topped with a spicy parsley and garlic sauce.

CLAMS WITH WHITE WINE AND CHIORIZO

Ingredients (for 2)

• 2 pounds of clams (cleaned)
• 2 chorizo links – chopped into small, diced pieces
• 1 small spicy hot red pepper (optional)
• 1/2 of large spanish onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced or sliced
• 1 diced ripe tomato
• 2 cups of hot clam stock (or chicken stock)
• 3/4 cup of dry white wine
• olive oil
• S&P
• minced parsley

What to do:

1. Saute your diced chorizo in your pot until they release some fat and take on a darker color. With a slotted spoon, remove chorizo and keep on the side for later.
2. Using the rendered chorizo fat (you may need to add a bit more olive oil if necessary), saute your sliced onions until the absorb the color of the chorizo fat and are slightly translucent. Add minced garlic and saute for another minute.
3. Add your white wine and simmer for 30 seconds.
4. Add your stock and S&P (don’t add any more salt if the stock is salted already). Let simmer for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the clams and put the lid on your pot. The clams should start to open after about 4 minutes.
6. Remove lid and add back the chorizo bits. Sprinkle with your diced tomato and chopped parsley.

SQUID WITH GOLDEN POTATOES (Serves about 4 tapas-style)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. new potatoes
• 1 small onion, sliced thinly
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 lb. cleaned squid, bodies thinly sliced in rings
• 3 to 4 tablespoons dry white wine
• parsley, chopped
• lemon juice (fresh, of course!)
• olive oil
• S&P

What to do:

1. Boil your new potatoes in salted water until soft – about 15 minutes.
2. Heat up a good amount of olive oil (about 4 tablespoons) in a pan. When potatoes are tender, remove from water and put into the oil. Cook until they turn brown and crispy. NOTE: We wanted to use new pototoes, but instead used Yukon Gold. These potatoes were delish but the consistency of the dish changed…the yukon gold (due to it’s high starch content) created almost a bit of a chunky sauce.
3. As the potatoes are browing, add your sliced onions and cook for about 7 minutes.
4. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
5. Add your squid slices and cook for 2 minutes.
6. Add your wine and cook for another minute.
7. Mix everything together if you have not done so yet. Add your parsley, S&P and some lemon juice.

WHOLE FRIED RED SNAPPER WITH A PERSILLADE (AKA Garlic and Parsley Sauce)

Ingredients:

• 1-2 lb. whole snapper (any other mild fish would work well), cleaned, gutted and scaled with head and tail
• vegetable oil (enough to deep fry the fish) – I used a whole bottle
• 1 1/2 cup of white flour
• 1 cup of water (stream in slowly, you may need a bit more or a bit less – you want your batter to be THICK, not thin)
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 2 cups chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 6 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped
• 1 mortar and pestle (could be optional, but it helps make a better sauce)
• 1/2 of lemon

What to do:

1. Put your oil in your pot and start heating it (on high).
2. Pat your fish dry and season lightly with salt and pepper on and inside the body
3. With a sharp knife, make three diagonal slits (about 1/2 inch or so apart) on each side of the fish, deep enough to hit the bone (about 1 inch). This will help when eating the fish.
4. Meanwhile, take your chopped parsley and your finely chopped garlic and mash it all together in your mortar and pestle (just mash it up a bit to release more of the flavors of the herb and garlic – do not make it into a paste).
5. In a bowl, mix together your flour (add a pinch of salt and pepper) and water to make a batter. Feel free to add the water gradually and stir into the flour, adding more as needed. You don’t want a thin batter. Dip your whole fish into the batter and make sure the excess batter drips off.
6. When the oil is hot enough, add the whole, batter fish and allow to fry until golden brown. Turn fish if not completely immersed in the oil. Probably takes between 6 to 9 minutes. When finished, take out and drain on paper towels.
7. Take your parsely/garlic mixture and put in a small sautee pan with enough olive oil to make a sauce and gently heat through on low. This will allow the flavors to lightly infuse with the olive oil. Heat through for about 4 – 5 minutes.
8. Plate your fish, squeeze some lemon juice on top of the fried fish then spoon on your warmed sauce. Enjoy!

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY:

• Tame Tapas We Ate in Madrid/Tortilla Espanola Recipe
• Unusual Tapas We Ate in Madrid
• Jamon (Serrano/Iberico) – Delicious and Loved by Spaniards
• Cabrales Cheese – It’s a Bit of an Animal!
• WHOLE FISH BAKED IN SALT
  
• SWEET ANISE-FLAVORED SALMON IN A POUCH (SALMON EN PAPILLOTE)
• FETTUCCINE FRA’DIAVOLO WITH CRAB AND SHRIMP