Skate wings

When we go to Dekalb Farmers Market on a Sunday, I usually try to buy fish for dinner. Last week when we were there though, I was disappointed to not be able to find branzino. After seeing it consistently for so long (if you can call a few months "so long"), I expected it to be there when I wanted it.

But I was happy to see a big supply of cleaned skate wings. Usually when we get there, there are only a couple left so we don't have a choice. Skate is a real bitch to clean, though I happily am not speaking from experience. So we chose two good looking skate wings and it came up to less than a pound. Less than $10 for my skate! I actually think it was closer to $6 or $8. (The whole branzino rings in at about $11.)

I don't serve skate enough to really play around with recipes. I made skate with brown butter sauce out of our Williams-Sonoma Fish book (thanks to my sis who gave this to me years ago!). It combines butter (purchased, not my own sadly, but I do have cream that has been waiting for me to make butter with...), lemon juice, and capers. What's not to like? I thought it was pretty awesome actually. I love the buttery texture of the skate. And it's so cheat and easy!

I had read an article that morning about Monsanto GMO corn resulting in organ failure ... in small animals. So pretty much everything we bought that day was organic.

I bought some pretty good looking spinach, double washed it, and sauteed it at high heat with some smashed garlic. For the cauliflower, I cut it up, added s+p+evoo and a squeeze of lemon, then put that into the oven at high heat also.

I also was in a mood for more stuffed mushrooms. I went with a garlic, shallot, breadcrumb, mushroom stem stuffing topped with parsley, breadcrumb, parmigiano topping. You know, they were only okay. I think I am off stuffed mushrooms for a while.

The other night, I made dinner and Adam came over. We had the smallest duck breast ever (that I butchered myself when we got a whole Heritage Farms duck) and a good assortment of veg since Adam is a vegetarian.

We had a bunch of garlicky dinosaur kale which was so richly good, even better than usual. I made my normal smashed potatoes topped with parsley and Il Bel Cuore evoo. And I also took some creminis (that I originally bought with the intent to make a mushroom and pea curry), chopped them in big pieces, then sauteed with shallots and garlic with a dash of cream and port at the end. They were SO good, even better than the oyster mushrooms we usually use for this.

I had also taken a McMullan Farms sweet potato that I got in my thank you bag at the PRFM volunteer lunch, cut it up, and roasted it in the toaster. I totally forgot about it so we had it like a dessert after everything else was done. It was SO sweet and delicious!