skate wings: poached, sour aspic, soup

2021-08-15

I was going to prepare sour aspic skate wings, but it turned out a few key ingredients were missing. This is a lesson in substitutions. I used other things that have a similar effect to get a slightly different dish, but similar enough to the original roots to be recognizable.

A. poached skate wings

This is it. This seems to be the best out of three so far.
Not to say that pan-fried isn't good, but poached is definitely nice.

Poaching is a necessary half-way step in the sour aspic recipe. I had 2 wings anyway and no volunteers, so why not try it and see how it tastes. I served the smaller wing as my meal with some of the stock vegetables. That was quite enjoyable.

I was supposed to make a fish stock, but I didn't have any fish discards (bones, heads, tails, ...) and cannot get them, because there is no fishmonger in Deming, NM. I could have poached flounder, cod or monkfish fillets to make one, but that seems such a waste of good fish. I made do with bouillon cubes and shrimp instead and that worked out well enough, other than that the bouillon cubes made the stock opaque.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 2-4 servings:

2 skate wings, 1 lb.
2 carrots
1/2 lb. shrimp, preferably raw
1/2 large yellow onion
bouillon cubes: 2 shrimp, 1 cilantro, 1 chipotle
S&P
a few pepper corns
1 whole bay leaf

Pic1: poached skate wings, onions, carrots

Directions

2021-08-15

Pic2: other ingredients
Pic3: bouillon cubes
Pic4: inions & carrots

Peel and slice the carrots thinly.
Peel onions, halve, cut in thin rings.
Heat 2 qts. water. Add bouillon cubes. Here: cilantro, chipotle, shrimp
I used the largest-diameter pan for this, so the wings would fit without being stacked.
Add carrots and onion rings, pepper corns, bay leaf.
Add S&P to taste.

Pic5: vinegar + cooking wine
Pic6: simmer
Pic7: with shrimp

Add vinegar to taste (1 tbsp. at a time) and 1 cup white cooking wine.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-15 minutes.
Add shrimp and cook until warmed through.
Total cooking time for raw shrimp 5-8 minutes, for cooked shrimp 3-4 minutes.
Remove from the heat.

Pic8-10: poaching skate wings

Thaw and rinse the skate wings.
Carefully remove any white connective tissue sheet on the surface of the wings with a sharp knife.
They'll make the wings curl up when cooking.
Check for smell! They should not smell at all.
Anything ammonia smell means the wings are not fresh. Discard; do not eat.
Red in the wings (as in Pic8) means the skate was not bled properly.
Submerge the skate wings in the hot stock.
Skate cooks very quickly, even without extra heat.
One minute is enough for medium to small wings, 2-4 minutes for very thick ray wings.
Remove the fish as soon as the meat is white and opaque throughout.
If you wait too long, the wing will fall apart in strands.

Pic11-13: served

I served the smallest wing as my midday meal, together with some of the stock vegetables.
The fish should separate easily in strands, as shown in Pic12.
Strangely enough, I cannot find any cartilage in these skate wings.
The large ray wings do have a soft skeleton of cartilage.
Optional: serve with halved lemon or lime.
Enjoy.

b. sour tapioca skate wings

This is a variation on sour aspic skate wings.

I did not have flavorless gelatin (or at least couldn't find it) so I used tapioca instead. I find tapioca absolutely flavorless, so hoped it wouldn't affect the fish flavor too much.

Unlike gelatin, tapioca requires about 5 minutes boiling.
Just like gelatin, tapioca takes a while to set. It takes about 10 minutes for the pearls to become visible, which is the ideal time to eat the soup. They will keep swelling overnight until the liquid is completely gelled.

I had more than enough stock, used only half to make the make-believe aspic, and served the rest as soup.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 4+ servings:

1-2 cup tapioca
1 qt. stock from previous recipe.

Pic14: it looks like this

Directions

2021-08-15

Pic15: poach
Pic16: remove
Pic17: strain / filter

As soon as the wing has been poached,
- remove and transfer to a large enough dish to lay the wing flat.
- With a slotted spoon, remove some of the shrimp and vegetables, arrange around the wing.
Strain or filter 2-3 cups of the stock. (Pic17)
You should have about 1 cup more than HALF the volume you expect to use to cover the wing.
i.e. if you would need 4 cups to cover, filter 2 ( = half)+ 1 extra cup.

Pic18: tapioca
Pic19: boil
Pic20: submerge

Bring the filtered stock to a roiling boil.
Add 1 cup tapioca. Boil for full 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and rest 5 minutes.
Mix 2 cups of the tapioca stock with 2 cups of dry white wine.
Add vinegar or lemon juice to taste, 1 tsp. at a time until clearly sour without being unpleasantly so.
Pour the mixture over the skate wing until completely covered. (Pic20)
Add the remainder of the tapioca stock back to the original stock.
Rest 5 minutes.

Pic21-23: chia seeds

I added a ring of chia seeds as garnish, about 2 tbsp.
Chia seeds also cause a strong gelling effect.
Wait 10-15 minutes to allow the dish to cool to hand-comfortable.
Even with tapioca instead of gelatin, I could see the liquid starting to get thicker already.
Cover.
Refrigerate at least overnight.
This will keep 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

c. sour tapioca seafood soup

All those 'chefs' claim there's nothing you can do with the leftover stock. I disagree.
If you did not use it all, do not throw away the leftover stock. That stuff tastes good, even though it might be a bit over-spiced. Add water (and wine?) to adjust seasoning until it does taste to your liking.

If you used all the shrimp with the skate wing, you can always add more now.
You can of course also add some of the skate meat to this soup.

Serve it as a sour seafood soup. It is surprisingly delicious.

Directions

2021-08-15

Pic27-29: sour tapioca seafood soup

Pour leftover tapioca stock back in the original pot.
If necessary, dilute the stock to reduce acidity to a (more) pleasant level.
I liked it as it was after I added the sour tapioca stock.
Adjust seasoning.
Bring to a boil again.
Simmer 2-3 minutes.
Serve immediately and enjoy.

Ideally, the soup should be served at least 20-30 minutes after boiling the tapioca.
That way the tapioca have time to swell enough to be clearly visible as glassy pearls. (Pic29)

D. serving 'rog in 't zuur'

Two days after preparing this I couldn't wait any longer. I just had to know how the experiment worked out. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't what I expected from it.

I know what the sour gel is supposed to taste like. I had some sour, but the tapioca pudding had a very different texture. The tapioca soup was great when it was warm, not so much when it was cold and sour pudding. It's quite edible, but not an effect I would try again. Gelatin would be better for this.

The fish itself was nice enough. It was thicker with liquid from the broth, but not at all sour like I had expected. Apparently, the broth has to be a lot sourer than I made it before it will show up in the fish. Or maybe the tapioca absorbed too much of it.

Since the sour tapioca pudding wasn't that great, I rinsed it off and made fish salad, served it with fries. That was nicer than eating the fish by itself.

2021-08-17

Pic30: still (soft) gelled
Pic31+32: the fish

Remove the container from the refrigerator.
Remove the fish from the sour aspic / tapioca pudding.
Use a wide flat spatula for this if you want to get that skate wing in one piece.
Serve as is, with some of the aspic / tapioca pudding.

Pic33: the fish, cleaned
Pic34+35: making fish salad

If you want to make fish salad with mayo/ketchup, rinse the fish first.
Mix with 3/1 mayo & ketchup.
I always add too much lately, need to do it one teaspoon at a time instead of all at once.+
Serve and enjoy.

Pic36-38: served with fries, hot sauce

Serving suggestion:

Serve with bread for breakfast or a snack.
Serve as a meal with fries and optional hot sauce.

D. serving 'rog in 't zuur'

See also: Deming, NM gardens, animals and more and avemariasongs.org

See also: Deming, NM gardens, animals and more
and avemariasongs.org