Junk fish, cooking and eating
With the way the regulations are going, maybe soon that's all we will be able to catch. I found this looking for how to cook a skate. Does anyone else eat "junk fish" and how do you prepare them?
Dogfish and Skate
Long Island, New York
On Long Island dogfish and skate are generally thought of as junk. They ruin the fisherman’s day and are thrown back in disgust. Because these fish are meaty, tasty, and boneless they are actually very good to eat and really don’t deserve their junk status.
If we had a better appreciation for these fish we’d have more fun, have more to eat, and there would be less pressure on more traditionally targeted species like flounder and fluke.
Fishing regulations on Long Island get tougher every year, and there are increasingly more bad fishing days than good. In light of these ever increasing restrictions on popular game and food fish I’d like to suggest something that might make a bad day fishing a little better: Keep and eat your junk fish.
I can hear the moans already. Sure, landing a skate is just not the same as pulling in a doormat or a nice size striper, but going home empty handed is no fun either. It turns out that two of the most annoying fish around, dogfish and skate, are very good eating. If that’s all you’re catching why not bring them home and cook ’em up?
Stick with me on this…
Skate is one of the ugliest fish you’ll ever catch on Long Island. Most people throw them right back into the water, but I keep them. They’re good eating and if you put them on top of your head they’ll wrap their wings around your ears like a bomber’s hat.
http://www.loving-long-island.com/im...te-and-joe.jpg
My son Joe holding a skate. I wanted him to put it on his head, but he was worried it would mess up his hair.
I don’t wear my skate hat much, but I do eat them when I catch them. The meat is tender, tasty, and there are no bones to fuss with, just a thin layer of cartilage separating the muscles in their wings.
Before we go any further let me tell you that sea scallops do not come from skate. It’s myth that many have heard, but is absolutely false. You can see from the pictures here that the muscle fibers in the skate wing are completely different than those in a sea scallop. There’s no way one could pass for the other. And the flavor is different too. Enough said.
Dogfish (some people call them sand sharks) are in the same boat as the skates. There are lots of them on Long Island and when they’re around that’s all you can catch. And who wants to catch something you can’t eat anyway? But you can eat them.
http://www.loving-long-island.com/im...sh-and-joe.jpg
A decent size dogfish.
If you’re having doubts about this just keep in mind that almost all of the fish & chips consumed in England today is dogfish. This dish is traditionally made with cod, but when cod became scarce in the 1990’s dogfish was found to be an excellent substitute.
There are 2 varieties you’re likely to catch: spiny dogfish and smooth. The spiny version has 2 painfully sharp spines near each dorsal fin. As you might have guessed the smooth has no spines. I eat both, but since I’ve never done a side-by-side taste test I couldn’t really say which I like better.
Like skate there are no bones in dogfish, just a piece of cartilage that is very easy to remove after the fish is cooked.
Preparation of these fish is simple, but you must do it soon after it’s caught or the fish will start to smell like ammonia. Your best bet is to clean them as soon as you catch them or as soon as you get back to the dock.
Cut the wings off your skate and either throw the rest away or save it for bait. Kill the skate first if you like by piercing the brain with a sharp knife.
http://www.loving-long-island.com/im...kate-wings.jpg
There's no other meat to speak of, so just cut the wings off.
Once the wings are off they have to be skinned. Use a very sharp knife to cut between the skin and the meat, or use pliers to pull the skin off. It’s a tedious process, but gets easier with a little practice.
http://www.loving-long-island.com/im...skate-wing.jpgA skinned wing. You'll get 2 of these from each skate.
Dogfish are a little simpler. Just gut and skin. Some people drain the blood, but I haven’t tried that myself, so I can’t speak for its effectiveness.
Once your fish is prepped you can cook them according to your favorite recipe. I like to bake mine on a bed of plain bread crumbs moistened with good olive oil and seasoned with a little Parmesan cheese. But these are a versatile fish, so cook them however you like.
Before you cook however, there is one extremely important thing that must be done:
The flesh of fish in the shark family contains a small amount of urea as a byproduct of protein metabolism. If cooked or stored the urea will release ammonia causing an unpleasant smell.
To solve this problem you must marinate the fish for at least 4 hours (overnight is best) in a simple solution of lemon juice and water. Place the fish steaks or fillets in a shallow dish and add just enough cold water to cover. Add 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice or 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar for every pound of fish. Other vinegars will work as well used in the same proportion as the cider vinegar.
You can use orange juice if you like, but since it is less acidic than lemon use 2 tablespoons for every pound of fish. Don’t afraid to experiment with different marinades. As long as they are acidic they’ll do the trick.
Once the fish has been marinated just cook according to your favorite recipe. I highly recommend [ame="http://www.amazon.com/dogfish-cookbook-Russ-Mohney/dp/0914718134"]The Dogfish Cookbook[/ame] by Russ Mohney for a boat load of recipes that work for either dogfish or skate.
http://www.loving-long-island.com/im...-cartilage.jpgSee how easily the cartilage peels away from the meat. Also note the long muscle fibers. Sea scallops don't look anything like this.
http://www.loving-long-island.com/im...ead-crumbs.jpg
Dogfish on a bed of bread crumbs ready for the oven. Cover with foil first.
So there you have it. These fish are plentiful on Long Island, good eating, and easy to prepare. Now if they were only good fighters too. But hey, nothing is perfect.
Re: Junk fish, cooking and eating
bababooeys post got me to thinking if folks would eat lionfish. Found some recipes on lionfish.org
PACIFIC GRILLED
Lionfish meat
Sea Salt
Olive Oil
Calamnsi Juice or Lime
Chillies
Soy Sauce
Preparation:
Briefly marinate lionfish filets in calamnsi juice (or lime) and salt. Make a dip by crushing 3 mild chillies in soy sauce and calamansi juice (or lime).
Cooking:
Flash grill in hot pan with olive oil or serve as ceviche.
Serve with sticky rice, grilled vegetables and mango chutney on the side. Eat with chop sticks.
Submitted b
LIONFISH TACO
Lionfish meat Spicy Pico de Gallo
or Hard Taco Shells Black Beans
live Oil Shredded Cheese
ckened Seasoning Sour Cream
Shredded Lettuce
Preparation:
U soft flour or crunchy corn tortillas. Spice Lionfish Filets with blackened seasoning.
Cooking:
Sear on a hot pan with olive oil. Place Lionfish in tortilla.
Add shredded lettuce, home made spicy pico de gallo, warmed black beans, shredded cheese, top with sour cream
Re: Junk fish, cooking and eating
Found some ray recipes.
Andrew Zimmern was eating sting ray tacos on the show the other night.
Living on a boat, we depend on fish for our daily nutrition. Lately, all I've been catching is ray, which we love. Surprisingly, none of our cruising friends accept our gift of ray, though they have no problem accepting Mahi mahi or tuna. "Not a good fish," they say... I say they need to know how to prepare it.
I grew up eating ray on fridays... it's a French thing, I suppose. Usually, my mom would poach a big piece of ray, skin, bone and all. Then, she would peel the skin off and take the bone out, reserving the meat on a hot platter placed on top of a pan filled with steaming water. Meanwhile, she would prepare a sauce of blackened butter and capers. Throw a big stick of butter in a pan, heat it until it turns black and add some capers. Pour the sauce on the fish. Finally, pour 2 tblsp of vinegar in the hot pan and deglaze the juices at high heat, pour on top of the fish. Marvelous, but a bit unhealthy to my taste, although we did prepare it this way 2 days ago, without blackening the butter.
On the BBQ? Yes, it's possible. I marinated a portion in oyster sauce, garlic, ginger, and rum for 2 hours, then threw the piece on the grill and grilled slowly. Did I not cook it enough? Although the taste was very fine, the texture was a bit chewy, so not my favorite.
I've added a few recipes below. Basically, the idea is to thin out the fish into 3mm thick slabs, then cook them at any sauce you like. I find that ray is better over-cooked than under-cooked due to the highly gelatinous structure of the meat. Have fun and experiment!
General Directions
1 - Catch yourself a ray! Watch out for the stinger! Immobilize the ray and chop off the tail. Since only the wings are comestible, slice off the wings and throw away the spine. Rub the goop off the skin with coarse salt, rinse and refrigerate for 6 hours at least. I find that it's easier to handle the fish when cold. But it's not absolutely necessary.
2 - Skin the wings - Take one portion of a wing (I made 8 portions with the ray in the photo above) and skin it. Insert a sharp filleting knife under the skin and peel it off.
3 - Debone the fish - With a sharp filleting knife, separate the flesh from the bone. You will end up with 2 wings and some flesh from the back, more or less depending on the location of your portion.
4 - Prepare the meat - If the portion is thick, thin it out by slicing off a 3 mm thickness. Remove the shiny-white nerves. Cut into portions. Some pieces will be larger than others. You may not have to cut into small pieces, depending on the recipe you choose.
RECIPES
1 - RAY WINGLETS (Appetizer) Season the strips of ray with salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Dredge in flour. Heat up oil in a pan and saute the ray fingers for 1 minute. Serve with lime.
2 - RAY ROUNDS (Entree) Out of the wings, fashion some rounded shapes. Season with salt, pepper, oregano and garlic. Lightly dredge in flour. Saute in hot oil (healthier than garlic/butter) for 2 minutes on each side. Drain and pat dry in paper towel. Serve with spicy red bean puree.
3 - RAY TACOS (Entree) Season strips of ray with taco seasoning. Saute quickly in 1 tbsp of hot oil. Prepare all the fixings for tacos as you prefer. Here: cabbage, tomato, cheese, mild red salsa and hot green salsa. Serve with warm tortillas.
4 - PESTO-CRUSTED WINGS (Entree) Slather 2 wings with good quality pesto paste (or make your own: basil, garlic, pinons and olive oil blended together). Heat up a pan, spray PAM non-stick spray at the bottom of the pan. Sear the wings 30 seconds on each side. Reduce the heat, cover and cook another 2 minutes on each side, depending on thickness. Serve with pasta.
5 - TAHITIAN PAPILLOTTE (Entree) In heavy aluminum foil, place a portion of ray (skin, and bones OK) - Add the following:
- 1 thumb of ginger, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 small onion, thinly sliced
- 1 Roma tomato, sliced
- 1 small yellow bell pepper, sliced
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rum
Heat up the oven (or BBQ) on high. Place the papillotte on a pan and bake for 15 minutes on high. Lower the temperature on low and cook another 10 minutes or until done, depending on the thickness of the fish. Serve with jasmine rice.
Let me know how this turns out for you!
http://ninisrecipe.blogspot.com/2013...s-recipes.html
