Skate Wing with Basil Butter

Needs more lemon.

One of my favorite things is to stroll through the Asian market and buy random things. I've got a cupboard full of random teas, spices and sauces that I turn to now and then for a change of pace or a little inspiration. 

It was on one of these recent strolls that I picked up a skate wing. I'm not sure why, other than it kind of sounded interesting and looked like a challenge

I wasn't really sure what to do with it, so I turned to the internet for advice and ended up here:

Beyond Salmon: The Mystery of the Skate Wing

What I liked about that recipe, beyond all the great information about skate, was how it was simple enough that you weren't going to lose the flavor of the wing. For my first attempt, I definitely didn't want to hide anything. 

I adapted a little, using the basic technique outlined above but seasoning it up a bit more (as suggested).   Hot skillet with some olive oil, 3-4 minutes a side, then a few more minutes with the lid on to finish it. I poured some buerre monte over after I turned it, to let it poach, but that was probably not necessary. The butter solids browned up a little though, which was a nice addition.

After I pulled the fish out of the pan, I added half a lemon worth of juice, some capers, a lot of fresh basil and some capers. The results were pretty good. The fish was nice and moist, meaty with not too strong a flavor. The bones are the only tricky part; you need to pull from the joint end instead of the tip, which I should have known anyway. Overall, I liked the fish, but the sauce was still a little lacking. I only had a few capers, as you can see from the picture, and I probably should have used the whole lemon. I have another wing, so I'll revisit this again this week.