Food for thought

A few weeks ago, David, Paysanne’s chef, spotted some fabulous, thick skate wings at the fishmongers and snapped them up to sell that week as one of our fish specials. By the end of Saturday night, we hadn’t sold a single of them. It reminded me of a week-end about 20 years ago when my dad bought a job lot of skate for pittance from a fish-erman, but had to skin them himself – pure hell on one’s fingers as skate have a hide as rough as sandpaper. He didn’t sell any then either and we ate nothing but skate for three days

I find this disdain for skate wing utterly baffling. To me, it’s one of the great fish deli-cacies and it’s as healthy and vitaminpacked as it is delicious. Perhaps it’s the miscon-ception that it’s full of ‘little bones.’ It’s not at all: there’s a layer or cartilage running through it and you simply pull the meat away from it, turn it over and do the same again.

Having said that, I shudder to recall one night in the restaurant years ago when a couple hadn’t noticed until it was too late that their American guest had eaten about half his skate, bones and all. Perhaps they were alerted by the strange crunching sound? He commented that the second half of it, without the cartilage, was much nicer.

If you’re in the mood for something a little different, do give this classic dish a try. The skate themselves have to be big thick pieces. If you see some miserable flat little ones in supermarkets sometimes that resemble a duck’s webbed foot, give them a wide berth.

This is the ultimate way to cook skate and it’s incredibly easy too. Match it up with a chilled bottle of Muscadet Sur Lie.

NOISETTE & CAPERS

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

2 decent sized skate wings, a bit more than a pound each 100g butter

1 jar of capers, drained Plain flour

Salt and pepper

Small glass of dry white wine

Lemon juice

Parsley

2 finely chopped shallots

Cut the fish into four portions and dust them with the seasoned flour. Get the butter up to a good heat and seal the fish quickly on both sides until it starts to brown, season it again then place it in a hot oven on a steel flat or something similar, and cover it with foil. Make sure that the thicker flesh above the bones is on top. After about ten minutes, remove the foil to let the top brown a little.

Quickly heat up some new butter in the pan until it is frothy. Lightly brown some very finely sliced shallots, add the capers (about ten per person), a slug of dry white wine, lemon juice and a handful of chopped parsley right at the end. Bubble that up, deglazing the pan as you go and pour it over the fish. n

Cai Ross is co-owner and Maitre d’ of the awardwinning Paysanne Bistro in Deganwy, which has been serving French country-style food to the fine people of North Wales since 1988. He also writes for Calibre Magazine, BBC Good Food, HeyUGuys.com and The North Wales Weekly

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