Fish catastrophy 2 - Steamed skate wing

I really didn't feel like cooking tonight so I opted for one of my no-sweat recipe: steamed skate wing with a ginger-lemon sauce. Sounds complex? Nahhh it's the easiest fish recipe there is: everything cook at the same time in stacked steamer baskets. In the first one you place your favourite veggies, on the upper one, you place the skate wing with a few flavouring ingredients and in a wok or a pan the base of your sauce will also produce the steam needed to cook everything.

You can adapt this recipe the way you want, but here’s my recipe (I did measure everything yesterday to be able to provide this to you):

For 2 persons:

- 1 medium skate wing
- 2 cups of seafood or fish broth (I used the powdered version)
- 1 lemon and its zest
- 1 or 2 inches of sliced ginger
- 1 bunch of green onions
- 1 cup of cooking cream
- Your favourite vegetables (I used broccoli and cauliflower)
- Salt and white pepper
- A pinch of nutmeg

Zest the lemon and place the zest in your wok along with half of the ginger and the broth.

Cut the lemon in slices and lay them in a steamer basket with the rest of the ginger. Wash the skate wing carefully and place it on top of the lemon and ginger in the steamer basket. Season the fish with salt and pepper and surround with the green onions. In the second basket, place your favourite vegetables.

Place the fish basket on top of the vegetable basket (this fish generally cook faster then the veggies if your veggies are not cut too finely) in the wok. Steam until the fish is cooked (about 10 minutes). Reserve the fish and vegetable and strain the zest and ginger from the broth (which should have reduced by half now). Add the cream and nutmeg to this broth and cook until desired consistency. You could also put less cream and thicken the sauce using your favourite thickener (e.g. corn starch mixed with cold water) or you could avoid using cream and choose to make a butter sauce (monter au beurre). When the sauce is ready, plate everything with a couple of lemon slices and green onions for decoration.

I am quite proud of this recipe but today I forgot about it when it was steaming. When I finally realized that a lot of time had passed the fish was overcooked. The skate wing was mushy and unappetizing… The lesson? Keep an eye on whatever you are cooking!