Another encounter with skate

The last time I encountered skate was at least a year back. This week I had an occasion to cook skate again, this time not a fresh one, but a frozen one, imported, and already trimmed. My experience skinning my first skate certainly helped me handle this second one with less fear.

A skate wing weighs at least pound, and may be cut to a few fillets. The skate's bone (actually cartridge) structure is a sheet of rectangular tiles tightly packed together. The long sides of the tiles all run in parallel with one another, and with the muscles. Thus, when cutting or otherwise handling the fish, it's easier to cut along the direction that the muscles stretch.

My previous experiment with pan-frying skate had been very successful and rewarding. So I decided to pan-fry this wing in butter. Pan-frying does not use too much butter. It only took me 1.5 tablespoon for about 20 oz of trimmed skate.  The principle of pan frying skinned skate is simple. Wipe draw the surface of the fish and let it sizzle in butter on medium to med-high until the bottom side hardens, and the top is almost cooked. Then flip and cook the other side. When the bottom side of the fish is cooked, it naturally turns crispy and comes loose very easily.

With skate, it is better to cook the thick side first so that the fillet has a better look. The thick side will be served on top when done. When trying to move the skate, it's important to move a spatula in the direction that the muscles stretch in order to minimize tearing. However, this time I made a very serious mistake. I tried to loosen the fish from the pan before the bottom side became crispy. What resulted was two torn fillets because the fish was skinless and too tender.

Fortunately, my last fillet succeeded. It took about 15-20 minutes of med-high heat to cook the first side. The second side was cooked faster. Some people use flour to coat skinless fish fillets before frying. But so far, my experiments with skate seem good without flour. The meat is pretty tender when done.

When I prepared the sauce, this time I tried two different variations: a thin dark one and a thick creamy one. They are as follows:

Dark sauce for skate:
Mix 1 tablespoon (TB) light soy sauce, 1 TB dark soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon (tp) sugar, 1/2 tp roasted rosemary oil. Heat in a sauce pan until bubbling and lightly thickened. Then pour onto fillet. Serve right away.

Creamy sauce for skate:
Mix 1.5 TB mayonnaise and 1 TB Dijon mustard and serve.