Fish Fabrication | Courtney Out Loud

One of the great advantages about going to culinary school is that I have a host of award-winning, world known and just darn good chefs around me at every moment I am in the classroom/kitchen. Our fish fabrication instructor, Chef Scargle, walked me through creating this dish during the day we fabricated skate. For this of you who don’t know what skate is, it is a non-bony white fish that looks like a small ray:

Skate Wing.....

The wing of the skate is normally the only thing eaten on the fish. I found the flesh to be quite light, flaky and tender…..in many ways it has the same characteristics that make tipilia so popular. The fish combined with the sauce is truly a wonderful sensory experience and is perfect for a Fall evening dinner party. Besides, the skate wing, once fabricated, almost look like angel wings, so presentation-wise it is a show stopper.

Let me know what you think………

Skate with Orange Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

* 1-2 pounds skate wings, filleted and skinned
* 8 T unsalted butter
* Flour for dusting
* 1/4 fresh squeezed orange juice
* 1/8 cup toasted hazelnuts
* 1 tablespoon fresh juilenned sage
* Salt
* Pepper

Preparation:

Take the skate wings out of the fridge, salt and let stand for 10 minutes.

Heat a pan over high heat for 3 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium-high and put in 4 tablespoons butter.

Combine pepper and flour in shallow bowl. Meanwhile, dredge the skate wings in flour and shake off the excess. Fry in the butter over medium heat, about 2-3 minutes per side. Be careful when turning, their odd muscle structure makes them difficult to flip without breaking.

Remove the skate wings to a warm oven and add the remaining tablespoons of butter. Cook over medium heat until the butter is a light brown and add a pinch of salt. Add orange juice, sage and hazelnuts — it will spatter. Scrape any bits that may have stuck on the bottom and cook for 1 minute.

Plate skate and drizzle sauce over fillet. Serve immediately.

Today is the last day of Fish Fabrication. I have tasted caviar, slaughtered countless squids, sliced my way through a school of mackerel and become Public Enemy #1 to rock cod. I danced the tango with multiple bi-valves and sent many crabs & lobsters to a steamy death. I smell like a fisherman. I saw things that have made me swear off fish for a long time to come. But I am done!

But honestly, lets go back to the horrible things we learned about fish. For example, did you know that parasites, in particular worms, are a normal occurrence in many large fish such as swordfish? And lets not forget the various illnesses you can get from seafood…..scrombroid, cigutera, and the various toxic fish poisons. It makes me think that Red Lobster could be the deadliest place on earth…..

: Aka “The Fish Gaunlet of Death”

Aside from my fear of seafood, the fish fabrication class went much better than the meat fabrication course. While we had the same instructor, this time around he definitely loosened up and I think in turn had a huge impact now only on the class but me personally. I tend to clam up during stressful situations and with the mood being considerably lighter in the kitchen, I found myself much more relaxed and receptive to information in class. I think everyone’s personalities really are starting to shine and it’s really great.

We basically cut and fabricated anything with gills in this course. I got my hands on trout, skate, squid, clams, lobster and about 10 other things when it was all said and done. It was an encyclopedic run through our world’s oceans and all that is fit to eat. Since I rarely cooked with fish, seeing all the various kinds of seafood and how to prepare them was really interesting and a little intimidating, but I really enjoyed it.

Again, let me thank my team for an awesome class. Without these all-stars, I really do think I would have had a harder time. We stuck together, kept each other’s backs and in general were our own personal cheerleaders. Each of them are true class acts. Jed – your dry sense of humor always provided the perfect way to break an awkward moment. Alex – you are a leader that motivates by example whether you know it or not. Rob – thank you for keeping it real and never failing to make us laugh. Gabe – while you deflated my ego once or twice, it was always to build me up. Thank you for letting me look over your shoulder repeatedly and never letting the team get too full of themselves.

Here is a stroll down memory lane…….