Seared Skate Wing with Ginger Blood Orange Beurre Blanc ( or butter sauce for those afraid of Google Translate )

I am a little hesitant to write this blog....  As a young man I worked in a French restaurant here in Syracuse then in a French Creole restaurant in New Orleans.  You learn quickly that French means fish.  Ok red meat too but they looooooove their fish and the sauces that are served with it.

Here in NY I hear all the time...  "uuhhhh  I don't eat fish".  I know!!  week old, battered to death funky assed haddock that is has the crap fried out of it in oil that should have been changed two weeks ago is not fish.  One of my favorite past time is converting these people into fish lovers.

So back to my hesitation..  Fresh Grouper stunning as it is, is $29/ lb, Snapper $25/ lb The T fish ( I will not name it here...)  but it has a alopia in it  is not fit for human consumption and affordable.  The point is it is real hard to find high quality ocean fish that is fresh and affordable.

The only time I saw some one buying skate wing, was when this pretty woman next to me heard me ask for it and immediately perked up and bought the rest of it.  She was French.  The two skate wings I bought to cook this dinner cost me $5.29  total!!  for both!!  I mean 2 bucks and change for each wing!!  The fish is stunning!!!  beautiful clean smells like the ocean and is amazing and my Wegmans is literally giving it away!!

A word about skate...  Know your fish monger..  if he does not know you by name and would die before selling a slightly oldish fillet to you then you need to smell the wing.  They go bad fast!!  If you buy it today cook it today.  Tomorrow it will be ok, but the next day you will have to throw it out.  That being said here is the recipe.

Fresh Skate Wings, one per person patted dry and at room temperature
Clarified butter
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup flour

2 blood oranges
1 Navel orange
1 lemon
3 tbsp. finely diced shallots
3 tbsp. finely diced fresh ginger
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup good white vinegar
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. heavy cream

Make sure that the skate wing is patted dry and at room temperature.

To start the sauce, roll the fruit under the palm of your hand softening them for juicing.  Cut them in half and juice them using a what ever juicer you have.  make sure you strain out the seeds and pulp.

Juice the oranges and half of the lemon.  It should come to about a cup of juice.
In a medium fry pan, add the Shallots, the ginger, the juice, the wine and the vinegar.

Begin reducing at high heat.
Let it reduce for about 10 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Sieve into another clean fry pan.

Begin reducing again..

Season the fish with salt and pepper.

Lightly dredge the fish through flour.

In a nonstick pan with clarified butter and high heat, drop the fish in and start to sear.

 

 

When the edge shows that it is cooked, it is time to flip the fillet.  Flip both fillets.

 

 

 

Continue cooking until the underside has a little color. then plate..

To finish the sauce..  Reduce it until it is a syrup.  if it has gone too far add a little more white wine and swirl it in.

 

Again don't trip....

Off heat add the cold butter and swirl it in.

 

 

Add the cream, and swirl it in.

Sauce the fish and serve...  The sprouts I'll show some other time..

Diced Fresh Ginger

Ginger is a little different then other aromatics because of its fibrous structure.  This is how I Finely dice ginger.

the piece of ginger in this demo is big and pretty evenly shaped.  Usually there a lot of branches shooting off of the main tuber. 

If you have branches just slice them off and use the bigger meatier main branch.  Any branches you slice off you can use in the same manner.

First slice off then ends squaring them off and removing any dried part.

Then carefully slice the sides off creating a rectangle.

Carefully slice off any remaining skin or dried pieces.

 

 

Slice along the length of the rectangle making long thin sheets of ginger

Stack the pieces and slice lengthwise again to create little rectangle strips of ginger

Pile the strips up and cut across the length to create little cubes.

Use a fine mince rocking chop to further dice the ginger.

Finely Diced Shallots

This is the first of several Prep Work themed blogs..
I use diced shallots all the time but I have neglected to show how to prep them in a fast and safe manner.  So....  Here we go..

Take an individual bulb and cut of both ends.

Stand the shallot up on end and slice it in half dividing both inner pieces.

Peal the outer skin off.

Place the flat to the shallot on the cutting board and carefully slice against the grain to wind up with a stack of thin cross sections.  Keep your off hand finger tips straight up and down to prevent slicing the tips of your fingers.

With the pile of cross sections laying flat on the board, cut across the stack with a rocking motion of the blade.  Place your off hand across the point end of the blade ensuring that your fingers are straight and way form the cutting edge. Keep the point end on the board and quickly chop with the handle end.  As you get used to the motion you can start to go fast and cop hundreds of times a minute.

Continue until you have a fine mince of shallots. 

Every once in a while I scrape the out side edges in to pile the shallots back into the center and pile them up again.  This gives the knife edge more pieces to cut with every stroke.

This is used for leafy herbs, garlic and any other finely minced aromatics.