Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (2024)

  • French Mains
  • Main Dishes
  • French Food

By

Hank Shaw

Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (1)

Hank Shaw

Hank Shaw is a James Beard Award-winning food writer and author of four cookbooks. He has expertise in wild foods and has written over 1,000 recipes.

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Updated on 01/8/24

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Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (2)

Skate are bottom-dwelling fish that look like a cross between a flounder and a stingray. These fish are a member of the ray family and​ cousin of sharks, with pectoral fins that are so large that they appear to be wings; hence the name "skate wing." However, most people never realize the resemblance to a wing, as skate wing is usually purchased skinned and filleted.

Skate wing has long been a favorite in French cuisine and is becoming increasingly popular with American chefs as they discover its mild, sweet taste and succulent flavor. Saltwater anglers catch lots of skates while looking for other fish, and they are perfectly tasty once you skin them, remove the tough centerline of cartilage, and cook them gently. If you're new to cooking this fish, be sure not to overcook them or they will become rubbery. You need to cook for only a few minutes until the flesh is opaque and starting to flake.

This French-inspired skate wing with brown butter recipe keeps things simple but delicious so the flavor of the skate can truly stand out. Besides, brown butter makes everything taste better.

Ingredients

  • 4 skate wings, about 1 1/2 pounds, filleted and skinned

  • Kosher salt, to taste

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

  • 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour, or as needed, for dusting

  • 1/4 cup white wine

  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives, garnish

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (3)

  2. Set the oven to warm or the lowest temperature. Have a baking sheet or oven-safe platter ready for the fish. Remove the skate wings from the refrigerator and salt lightly. Let stand for 15 minutes.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (4)

  3. Heat a skillet over high heat for 3 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium-high and add 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (5)

  4. Meanwhile, dredge the skate wings in flour and shake off the excess.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (6)

  5. Fry in the butter over medium heat, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Be careful when turning the fish, as their odd muscle structure makes them difficult to flip without breaking.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (7)

  6. Transfer the skate wings to the baking sheet and place in the warm oven. Depending on the thickness of the fillet, you may need to bake at 350 F to make sure it's cooked through about 5 - 10 minutes. Careful not to overcook it because it gets rubbery.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (8)

  7. Add the 2 remaining tablespoons of butter to the skillet. Cook over medium heat until the butter is light brown in color. Keep a close eye on the pan as this will not take too long, and you don't want the butter to burn.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (9)

  8. Add the wine to the skillet (it will splatter, so be careful). Scrape up any bits that may have stuck to the bottom of the pan and cook off the alcohol, about 2 to 3 minutes.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (10)

  9. Plate the fish and pour the sauce over the skate wings. Garnish with the chives and serve immediately.

    Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (11)

How to Serve Skate Wing

Skate wing with brown butter goes well with simple rice dishes or mashed potatoes, but if you want to keep with the French inspiration why not try a gratin dauphinoise recipe, a rich baked dish of potatoes, milk, cream, egg, and cheese.

A glass of nice white wine is the perfect match for this skate in brown butter. For the perfect wine pairing, try a Sancerre or a Greek Assyrtiko.

Tips

  • When butter burns, it turns a dark brown; however, brown butter should be a light brown color. It is important that you stop cooking once the butter begins to change color and not after, or else the sauce will be ruined. It will smell a bit nutty as it browns.

How to Store Skate Fish

Like most fish, skate fish will keep for 2 or 3 days, maximum, if covered in the refrigerator. Reheat gently, covered in foil, in the oven, or over low heat in a skillet with a little more butter.

23 Easy Fish Fillet Dinner Recipes

Recipe Tags:

  • chicken wings
  • entree
  • french
  • valentine's day

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Skate Wing With Brown Butter Is a Quick and Easy Fish Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is skate wing fish? ›

Updated on December 15, 2023. Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Shell Royster. Skate — also known as skate wing — is a mild, succulent fish that is part of the ray family. Skate gets its name from the pectoral fins that resemble wings.

How much skate wing per person? ›

Our fresh skate wings range in weight from 300g which will serve one person, up to 700g which will serve two. Rays are common in the waters around Dorset and are sustainably caught by our local fleet of day boat netters. Seasonality: All year. Cook skate exactly as you would a flatfish, like plaice or lemon sole.

What is a good substitute for skate fish? ›

Well-handled Australian Salmon should be firm enough to use as an alternative to skate or ray. Its darker flesh and oilyness make it well suited to Grilling, Smoking or BBQ'ing. Cooked in a wet dish, the flesh of Australian Salmon will be moist and juicy.

Is skate wing expensive? ›

£6.50 / Portion or £12.99 / Kg

Skate wings have long thin sections of juicy flesh either side of a simple bone.

Is skate a nice fish to eat? ›

Before then, the flesh can be tough and tasteless. However, the smell and the ammonia itself should disappear quickly during cooking, and one can enjoy flesh that is meaty, sweet, tender and lean with an easy-to-eat softly-corrugated texture.

What does skate wing fish taste like? ›

The flavor of skate is mild yet distinctive, sometimes compared to scallop or crab. Skate wings have a high collagen content, which can give a nice, gelatinous texture when cooked. Because of its mild flavor, skate is quite versatile.

Are skate fish good to eat? ›

Yes, you can cook stingray and skates. As unappetizing as they look, and as weird as their anatomy seems, stingrays (skates too) aren't much harder to clean than your usual table varieties. And, yes, they make delicious dinners.

Is skate wing tasty? ›

Skate wing is delicious, with a taste similar to scallops, and has a unique, firm texture due to a high collagen content in the fillet. This also makes it incredibly moist when cooked, with a lovely springy mouthfeel.

What does skate taste like? ›

“Because of its texture, taste and handsome appearance, you can't go wrong with any accompaniments and/or sauce to match with the fish. Its flaky, crabmeat-like texture tastes like a succulent white fish with a nutty flavor like crab.

Is skate wing good for you? ›

Along with that, skate's flavor is mild, meaning that among other underrated types of fish you should try, it's a good introductory choice if you're unsure how you feel about fish's flavor. Plus, it's high in protein and easy to cook, so it's a healthy dinner option that also won't take you forever to prepare.

Is skate fish illegal? ›

The recreational fisheries for all other federally managed groundfish species (soupfin shark, Dover sole, English sole, arrowtooth flounder, spiny dogfish, skates, ratfish, grenadiers, finescale codling, Pacific cod, Pacific whiting, sablefish, and thornyheads) are open year-round, at all depths.

What eats a skate fish? ›

Commonly found at depths of 100-200m (328-656 ft) in coastal bays and estuaries along sandy or muddy bottoms. Feeds on marine invertebrates on the sea floor as well as small fish such as sculpin. It is preyed upon by large bony fish and sharks. Elephant seals are known to sometimes eat big skate egg capsules.

What are the least fishy tasting fish? ›

Most white fish—think tilapia, halibut, grouper, cod—are considered mild in flavor but sometimes have a delicate, sweet, and buttery taste. That's why we like these fish as options for seafood beginners.

Is skate wing good to eat? ›

Not only are skate wing fillets delicious, but according to the science, the little skates that we encounter inshore have a stable population that is not being overfished. All in all, it might be smart for us to adapt and begin eating more skate as opposed to other species.

Do you eat the cartilage in skate wing? ›

The fresh skate wing you can buy in the Washington area year-round will typically come filleted, although it may still have some white connective tissue on the underside that should be removed before cooking. Some fillets may have a few spiny bits of cartilage still attached; they are edible but not always desirable.

Is there much meat on skate wings? ›

Each skate wing has a fairly thin layer of meat on the top and bottom, with cartilage in between.

References

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