Raie au Beurre Noir is the classic French, and English, way to serve Skate or Ray. It takes a bit of confidence to let the butter get really dark, but the results are worth the practice.
INGREDIENTS:
1kg Skate or Ray fins, skinned and filleted
Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
150g salted butter
2 tablespoons capers, in brine, rinsed and dried
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
½ lemon
Crusty bread, to serve
METHOD:
Cut each fillet in half to give 4 pieces of roughly the same shape and size. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
Heat a large frying pan over a high heat, add olive oil. Add fish, reduce heat to medium and cook for 4-5 minutes until fish starts to turn opaque and is well coloured on one side. Add butter and when it starts to bubble and foam, turn the fish over and reduce heat to medium. Baste the fish with the butter for a minute or 2 then remove fish from pan and keep warm.
Increase heat, add capers to butter and cook until butter turns dark brown, then immediately add parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice and remove from heat.
Serve fish immediately with butter poured over the top and crusty bread on the side.
ALTERNATIVE SPECIES:
Rainbow Trout fillets, skin-on.