Skate (wings): What is it? And how to cook it?

From frying it, grilling it to cooking it in the oven

A skate is a cartilaginous fish with a flattened body. This fish has a delicious taste and fairly firm meat.

That’s why you can cook it in all kinds of ways. You can fry it, poach it and steam it.

Skate has a soft structure and is therefore perfect in cold dishes. You can read more about this tasty fish in this article.

Chapter 1

What kind of fish is skate?

Like the shark, the skate is also a cartilaginous fish. You can recognize this fish by its flattened body, diamond-to-disc shape, and tail. It has a brownish mottled camouflage pattern and a white to pinkish underside.

This fish eats molluscs, benthic fish, shellfish, echinoderms and worm-like animals. It grows up to 9 meters long and up to 50 years old.

Chapter 2

Where does the fish come from?

Skates live at the bottom of the sea. They usually stay on the coast, but can live under water to a depth of 3000 meters. This fish is often caught in the Mediterranean Sea, but is also found in the North Sea.

The skate season is from June to December. You can also buy it outside this season, but then it contains too much roe, which affects the unique taste.

Chapter 3

How do skate wings taste?

The wings of the skate are mainly used. They taste creamy and are virtually fat-free. When cooking a fresh skate wing, the meat has a light pink color and a firm texture.

And the color changes from pink to white during cooking. The meat is not tough, but also not limp and is rarely dry. This makes the fish delicious in many dishes.

Many people find it tasty and easy to fry the skate wing. This is partly due to the solid structure.

Chapter 4

Is it healthy?

If you want to eat light and diet-friendly, skate meat is the perfect choice. This lean fish contains less than 2 grams of fat per 100 grams and is easily digestible. So it is healthy.

Chapter 5

Food & wine

A glass of wine goes well with skate dishes. Which wine you prefer to choose depends on how you want to cook it.

In general, an aromatic white wine goes very well with it. If you add capers to your dish, you prefer a fuller, creamy wine such as Chardonnay.

Chapter 6

How to cook skate?

There are several ways in which you can cook skate. You only need a few ingredients to make a delicious dish.

For example, you can fry it, grill it on the barbecue, poach it and cook it in the oven. All these cooking methods can suffice for a real feast.

To enjoy your skate dish even more, you can fillet the skate or skate wing. You will need a long, sharp knife for this. First you put the knife against the cartilage of the wing.

You keep the knife as flat as possible and then move the knife from left to right over the bones. This process is even easier if you cut the wing in half or quarters first. But of course, you can also ask the fishmonger to fillet the skate for you.

Frying it in a pan

Frying skate can be done in different ways. However, to easily pan-fry a skate wing, you can follow these basic steps:

1. First, season the wings on both sides with salt and pepper.
2. Then you coat the skate with flour. Tap the excess flour off the fish.
3. Then melt your butter in a pan. Make sure that the pan is not too hot, otherwise the butter will burn.
4. When the butter starts to foam, but the lump has not completely melted, place your fish pieces on the thick side in the pan.
5. You let the fish fry for about 8 minutes.
6. If your butter starts to get a brown color, you can immediately add some small lumps of butter, after you lower the heat.
7. After this you turn the fish, so that you now fry the thin side.
8. Fry the thin side for about 2 minutes.
9. Finish it off with some capers, lemon and/or parsley.

Grilling on the barbecue

You can also cook skate on the barbecue. Fortunately, grilling a skate wing is easy.

1. Mix some olive oil with lemon juice and add tomato, garlic, tarragon, basil and spring onion.
2. Then season the mixture with salt and pepper.
3. Let this sauce mixture sit for at least an hour.
4. Brush the skate wings with olive oil and season them with sea salt.
5. You grill the fish twice for 4 minutes on the barbecue at a temperature of about 220 degrees Celsius.
6. If the fish is cooked, you can remove it from the grill and serve it with the sauce. Enjoy these delicious skate wings from the BBQ.

In the oven

Another way to cook skate is in the oven.

1. The first thing you do is coat the skate wings with flour.
2. Melt a knob of butter and then fry the fish until golden brown.
3. Add the desired herbs and moisten the fish with a dash of water if necessary.
4. Then you put the fried skate wings in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about five minutes.
5. Put the skate wings on a plate to serve them. If desired, you can serve it with zucchini balls.

Chapter 7

Recipe: Poached Skate Wing with a spicy Beurre Blanc

Chapter 8

All recipes

Looking for more inspiration? Then see below more recipes with skate. Or check our fish recipes for even more inspiration.

Poached Skate Wing with a spicy Beurre Blanc, Stewed Spinach and Pommes Soufflées

Where we use fillets for almost every type of fish, it’s completely different with skate. [...]

12
Jul