Dish the Fish: Simple Poached Skate Wings with Basil Butter

Poaching? Skate wings? SIMPLE?? Trust us - it's easy and delicious!

These tender skate wings are herby, buttery, and flavorful.

If we lost you with the name of this recipe, hear us out: poaching is just glorified boiling, and skate wings aren’t as strange or intimidating as they might sound, so this dish is actually quite quick to make and is extremely flavorful. Simply throw some aromatics into a pot of water, simmer (poach) your skate wings until done, and serve with an easy basil butter sauce!

If you’ve never heard of or tried skate wings before, you’re not alone; they are more often found on restaurant menus than in fish markets. Rather than having two fillets like a traditional round fish, skates have two edible pectoral fins, or “wings.” Skates are cartilaginous fish like their shark relatives, unlike our usual bony fish. Since there isn’t a large retail market for skates in Maine, most fishermen catch them incidentally when harvesting groundfish and sell their skates to processors who will “wing” them for the restaurant industry. Barndoor

skates and winter skates are two species that are landed in Maine, and we highly recommend asking your fishmonger to carry them if they don’t already! Skate is a flavorful, healthy, and sustainably caught local seafood option that we think deserves a little more hype.

Serves: 2-4

Prep & cook time: 45 mins

INGREDIENTS:

2 skinless skate wings (6-8 oz each)

Poaching liquid ingredients:

6 cups water

½ onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 stalk celery, roughly chopped

1 lemon, sliced into rounds

1 TB salt

1/2 tsp whole peppercorns

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs thyme

2 sprigs parsley

(you can make any variations here that you like: different herbs, spices, etc.)

Gnocchi ingredients:

1 package of gnocchi

6 TB salted butter

½ cup very finely chopped basil

To cook skate wings:

1. Combine water and all poaching liquid ingredients in a large, wide pot (you want a pot that can fit the skate wings in a single layer). Allow poaching liquid to boil for 10 minutes before adding skate. Alternately, heat up 6 cups of pre-made fish stock or other preferred stock, without the poaching liquid ingredients.

2. Add skate wings to poaching liquid in a single layer and return liquid to a gentle simmer, making sure skate wings are submerged. (They may curl up at first but will soon relax and lay flat).

3. Poach skate wings for 6-8 minutes, or until fish becomes opaque. Avoid boiling; poaching at a gentle simmer will yield tender fish, but boiling will cause it to overcook.

4. Remove skate wings from poaching liquid and place on paper towel-lined plate.

(Optional: strain and save stock for future use)

To make gnocchi and sauce:

1. Melt butter in heavy bottomed-pan.

2. Add finely chopped basil to melted butter and stir.

3. Remove from heat.

4. Remove 3 TB of basil butter and set aside in a small bowl, leave remaining basil butter in pan.

5. Boil gnocchi according to instructions on package.

6. Strain gnocchi and add to pan with remaining butter, toss to coat.

To plate:

1. Add gnocchi to plate.

   
   

2. Top with skate wing.

   
   

3. Drizzle skate wing with reserved basil butter.

   
   
   
   

   Watch the full video below: