my friend wanted to but we didnt know what part of the skate to eat. the dogfish was too small. ill have to go on garbagefish.com and print out the recipe for next time! but how do you fillet them with the spines on their wings?
maybe there will be a SKATE COOKOUT AT IBSP NEXT SUNDAY just find my truck with the BFH burgee flying from it!
Eating a small dog is easier than a small sea robin. Easier to get some meat out of it.
You definately eat the wings, although I'm sure if you travel far enough into some exotic overseas destinations you'll find skate eyeball pudding and dogfish liver pate'. Anyone ever had monkfish liver? I had it at a sushi bar once. The chef wouldn't tell me what it was until after I tried it. Never again.
Anyway, first thing's first. Use gloves and you'll be fine with those spines. I have a special serated knife that I use for taking the wings off. Then I bring out excalibur, sword of the ancients, which is my go-to fluke knife. Basically a straight, boning type filet knife and I work the skin off the wing. Then put the two wings on ice or in the fridge and some say they taste even better the 2nd or 3rd day.
Remember guys, take a pic of your garbage and email it to me and I'll send you a sticker. garbageman@garbagefish.com
Re the eating of skate wings. It seems to me that they are all cartilage; no meat. The member that got me into eating Sea Robins tried to prepare Skate wings but to no avail. I'm guessing they have to be several lbs. for there to be any eatable meat on them. What am I missing ?
I honestly am not trying to see how much fun it would be to get people to eat weird things. Skate are delicious. Much like there are bones in the middle of a fluke, there is cartiledge in the middle of a skate. Much like there is more meat on a larger fluke, there is more meat on a larger skate. This is a picture of prepared skate: http://www.garbagefish.com/images/pics/skatedish.jpg Give it a try.
I'll vouch for skate anyday. I recently went to a Mario Batali restaurant in NYC and had a deep fried skate dish that was out of this world. I really couldn't believe how tastey it was. Granted that Mario is one of the top chefs out there, but still, that s*@# rocked! I tried to figure out what was used to bread the skate but too much wine and low light made it that next to impossible. I will be experimenting once I catch one that's worth keeping.
That's how I got hooked on it. I went to really nice italian joint in Baltimore, ordered the skate and then asked myself, why have I been throwing these back all these years.