Chef Luis Herrera recalls when he first started cooking on skates. 2013, New York City. At the now-closed Italian restaurant where he worked, he served piccata, pan-fried fish in butter and capers. “I remember thinking that in that moment,” Herrera says. “Why does fish have a texture similar to chicken?Because the skate has cartilage instead of the typical bone, its meat is cut off the wings, or served on the wings as in some restaurants, allowing diners to scrape them off themselves. White fish like hake are stripped, but skate rays are dense and ropey.
Now Herrera is no stranger to skating being part of the Ray family. When in the menu EnsenadaAt a seafood restaurant in Brooklyn where he is executive chef and partner, the chefs batter and fry the meat and serve it as handcrafted tacos with moles, pickled fennel and tortillas. Last year, former Eater New York critic Ryan Sutton said, thought it belonged to him “Tacos of the Year”
Ensenada’s cuisine is just one example of the rising popularity of skating. In 2016, washington post called it “”fish in trouble“In the United States, only fine dining restaurants like Le Bernardin took the time to use it, and home cooks didn’t use it either.” But in recent years, wine bars and restaurants across the country have seen skating become more popular—and cool—and it holds promise for chefs, home cooks, and fishermen alike.
Some chefs are taking inspiration from the growing presence of skating abroad.New tapas spot Laila Bazam El Raval In Austin, Texas, she connects fish to her former hometowns of Spain and Singapore. At the latter hawker center, skates are rubbed with a belacan, wrapped in banana leaves and baked. In Barcelona it is prepared plancha style. El Her Raval was named after a district of Barcelona in her tribute to that her experience. Bazaam is developing a dish featuring skates cooked in a charcoal oven and finished with Basque Pil Pil her sauce, a cod-based emulsion.
Skeleton rays and other rays are common foods in England, where he grew up, but chef Ed Simansky doesn’t remember seeing fish as much as he did when he moved to New York City in 2014. “Now it’s more ubiquitous,” Szymansky said. His bustling New York City restaurants, “Dame” and “Rose,” may have helped promote the popularity of skating in New York City.
His favorite preparation so far is Dames Skate Kyiv, half cooked in brown butter and half wrapped in parsley butter, then dredged and fried to showcase the fish.And while skates commonly appear on menus as wings or filets, dames also use niche menus skate cheekserved with kedgeree rice.
Skateboard fly is especially popular.That’s how it recently appeared in New York Atboy, of Servo, Patty Ann’sand fet square.Obelix in Chicago incorporates Japanese elements As a skate wing cutletMajordomo in LA offered skateboard fly with fried rice. In England it is often used in fish and chips. Meanwhile, Le Tour in Chicago serves bread baked in imitation of traditional French baking. with capers and brown butter.
There are compelling arguments in favor of skating. For example, at Aqua Best in New York City, a pound of cod fillet he sells for $14.99, while the same amount of skate wings can be purchased filleted, so they sell for $7.99. ing. A pound of halibut is $34.99. “It’s very easy to get,” Herrera said. “I’ve never had a problem with a shortage of skates.”
That richness is why chef Nick Duttmeyer says. harvest He from Cambridge, Massachusetts likes it. “There are many species that are eaten fairly widely,” says Deutmeyer. “If we continue to consume them in this way, there is really nothing. [going to be] there’s nothing left Skate rays are one of the lesser known fishes and I think not many people eat them. Seafood Watch at Monterey Bay Aquarium List some types of skates Certified or otherwise not depleted or overfished.
Now at Harvest, Deutsche Meyer’s skates are drizzled with cornmeal and served with clam chowder. People in eateries may be unfamiliar with the fish, which may discourage some chefs from including skateboards on their menus, but Deutmeyer says customers are interested. Skeletons sell “just as much” as other whitefish. Referrals to restaurants may encourage diners to consider fish at home as well.
Jared Auerbach, CEO of a Boston-based seafood company Red’s Bestis happy to hear that skates are on the menu, “because that’s what we see a lot in our oceans,” he says. Skate fishing has always been a big deal in New England, but “historically, it has relied heavily on foreign markets for skates,” he says. For example, South Korea importing a lot Came from America and cooked by a local chef many ways. It’s not uncommon to see skates in Korean restaurants in Los Angeles and Honolulu. Kovau Serve steamed Botham and Sorabol Mix raw with cold noodles.
Auerbach said his company acts as an intermediary between fishermen and wholesalers and distributors, creating demand for “very abundant local seafood” and “creating markets.” is our job,” he said. Like San Francisco chef Peter Hemsley, West Coast skates are similarly abundant and underutilized. It pointed out.
Red’s Best wants domestic consumers to be “more generous and flexible” about the seafood they consume, Auerbach said. That means more people will change their diet to include a wider variety of fish, including skate rays, thinking, “I love haddock, so dinner tonight doesn’t have to be haddock at all costs.” deaf.
Much of the skates continue to be exported, Auerbach said, but overseas demand for them has been constrained by rising domestic demand. In the past, home cooks were hampered by their “lack of ability to cook on their own”. washington post At least in New York City, she writes, it’s easier now. You can even order skates online. “When a lot of skates arrive, people buy them,” says Auerbach.
At Rose, serve skating presented one unforeseen risk. Restaurants sometimes served both steak and skate on the same menu. “People misheard each other and order the wrong thing, and when the fish comes out they want the beef and vice versa,” says Simansky. “It’s not ideal, but in practice it is.”