Shrimp, Skate And Blueberry

Rebecca Charles is the latest to take The Saturday Early Show's Chef on a Shoestring challenge.

Charles is the chef and owner of the "Pearl Oyster Bar" located in New York City. Her restaurant brings a little bit of Maine to Manhattan with lobster rolls and clam fritters.

In her first cookbook titled, "Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie," she has collected 70 of her favorite seafood recipes interwoven with stories of her family's love affair with Maine.

(Click here to read an except from "Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie.")

We asked Rebecca Charles to create a three-course meal for four for under $30. Her menu: A Perfect Shrimp Cocktail for the appetizer; an entrée of Pan-Roasted Skate with Sweet Corn Ragout; and for dessert, Blueberry Sauce with Vanilla Ice Cream.

Terminology:

Skate: Also known as a ray. The names are often used interchangeably though in some quarters the term "skate" is applied to the members of this species that are used for eating while "ray" generally refers to those (such as the electric ray and giant manta ray) that are fished for sport.

Skates have wing-like pectoral fins that undulate as the fish meanders along the ocean floor. The fins are the edible part of the skate, often described as sweet, firm and white. It is similar to the texture and taste of scallops. In fact, a few fishmongers who consider skate not worth selling as such cut round pieces of skate and sell it as scallops to naive buyers. But the popularity of this tasty fish is growing and it is now available year-round.

Shrimp: The shrimp is the world's most popular fresh seafood - only canned tuna tops shrimp in popularity. Although shrimp is high in cholesterol, experts say it actually contributes to better ratios between LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol). Studies show that shrimp also lowers triglycerides in the blood.

Charles says people tend to overcook shrimp - making it taste like rubber. Before buying shrimp, she recommends smelling them first. Charles says they should have just a hint of sea aroma, and the shrimp should look clean and bright.

Shrimp should not smell like ammonia or rotten eggs - that would indicate the shrimp is old, according to Charles. She also says they should not smell like chlorine - that would mean they were washed in chlorine to kill bacteria.

Recipes:

A Perfect Shrimp Cocktail
Serves 4

Cooking shrimp in the shell imparts a wonderful flavor to the shrimp, in the same way cooking meat on the bone does, says Charles. Also, seasoning the water makes a great deal of difference. But if you don't have seasoning spice in the pantry, Charles says using lemon and parsley works well as a substitute.

Ingredients:
1 pound shrimp (*16 to 20 shrimps)
juice from 1/2 lemon
2 sprigs flat leaf parsley
cocktail sauce (see below)
1/2 lemon for garnish

*Charles says this is the number of shrimp you get per pound at the best size for shrimp cocktail.

To clean the shrimp, place the point of a paring knife under the shell at the head of the shrimp sharp side up. Slide the knife in about two inches and bring it straight up sharply so it slices open the back of the shrimp. Watch your fingers. Make sure they are under the shrimp, far from the knife. If you need to make a little cut to get it down to the tail, do so now. Pull out the vein. Charles says, if the shrimp is terribly dirty, it is acceptable to clean it under a light trickle of water from the tap, although many chefs believe water will diminish the flavor.

One of the keys to a great shrimp cocktail is not overcooking the shrimp, according to Charles. In 2-quarts of rapidly boiling water, add the lemon and parsley and drop in the shrimp. Cook them for approximately 3 minutes until the back of the shrimp is white, without any translucent patches. Drain and then plunge them immediately into an ice bath to stop the cooking. After they have cooled, remove them from the water, remove the shells, and store them on a platter or bowl over plastic wrap covered ice in the refrigerator.

Arrange on a platter or in individual parfait glasses with cocktail sauce, lemon wedges and flat-leaf parsley.

Cocktail Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon freshly grated horseradish root
pinch of salt & pepper
squeeze of lemon

Whisk ingredients together and serve with shrimp.

Pan-Roasted Skate
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 medium skate wings
1 cup flour
1 cup whole milk
salt and pepper
1/4 cup canola oil
lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Soak the filets in milk for five minutes then drain and lay on a plate. Put the flour on another large plate or in a shallow bowl. Season both sides of the filets with salt and pepper and then dredge in the flour, coating thoroughly. Pat off any excess. In an oven-proof pan over high heat, add the oil and heat to just below the smoking point.

Place the filets in the pan, presentation-side down. Lower the heat to medium. When the crust is golden brown, about three to four minutes, flip the fillets over and finish them in the oven for about two to three minutes. When the fish is done an cooked through, the natural striations of the fish will flake apart easily.

Sweet Corn Ragout
Serves 4

3 large ears (or 4 smaller ears) of fresh sweet corn, cut off the cob
1 large tomato (or 2 medium tomatoes), seeded and diced
8 snap peas, julienned on the bias
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, plus 4 sprigs for garnish
2 tablespoons whole, unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
kosher salt & black pepper
1 lemon cut into four wedges for garnish

Bring 1/4 cup of lightly salted water to boil in a sauté pan. Add corn and cook for two minutes. Then add the sugar snap peas, tomato, basil, parsley and the butter. Adjust seasoning and serve. Mound the corn in the center of the plate and top with skate filet. Garnish with lemon and basil.

Blueberry Sauce

Charles says this is a very fresh fruit sauce, so you don't have to cook it too much. This method of making a fresh fruit sauce can also be applied to strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.

Ingredients
1 pint blueberries
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped lemon zest
1 pint of vanilla ice cream

Put blueberries into a saucepot, crushing 1/4 of them with the back of a spoon. Add the sugar and simmer on a low heat for three to four minutes. You want the blueberries to make their own liquid (adding water to the sauce will make it too thin so try and coax as much liquid out of the blueberries as you can). Add lemon zest. Taste, adjust sugar if necessary. If the sauce is too thick you can add a few drops of water. Using a spatula or the back of a soup ladle, force mixture through a fine strainer.

Serve over ice cream.

Chef's note: The fresh fruit sauce keeps for two days, refrigerated.

Read an excerpt from "Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie"

Introduction:

There is something very special about summer vacation. To me, it means one thing: the historic Maine town I have been visiting since I was a baby. After hundreds of sweltering hours behind the stove at my New York city restaurant Pearl Oyster Bar, I finally get my reward at the end of August, when I close Pearl for two weeks and drive north to Kennebunkport, Maine. My family has been making the same trip since 1919, which is why every time I go back to visit, it feels like going home.

From the small bridge that spans Gooch's Creek, I watch three peach-and-teal-colored rowboats tethered to one another, their mirror images undulating in the water. Next to the road, the gold, purple, and pink spires of lupine, a flower of imperial height that grows wild throughout Maine, follow me on my morning walks. Lobstermen's cottages dotted around the harbor appear through fogs thick with salt-gingerbread houses trimmed in bright colors and wrapped with strings of buoys, like huge crayons, lobster pots stacked in the yard. I am the third generation in my family to summer in Kennebunkport, where, just like me, my family went to escape the noise and heat of New York City. Coming from a family of scant traditions, for me the Kennebunks are more than just an escape-they are a part of my history and my future.

Not too long ago I found a photo of me on my first trip to Kennebunkport. There is a tuft of hair on my otherwise bald eight-month-old head, and my chubby arms and legs are outstretched. I'm wearing nothing but a poofy pair of pants over my diaper and an enormous smile on my face. Even without the striped beach towel spread over the sand beneath me, I would know just by that smile that I was on Gooch's Beach. As children, my mom, my brother, and I and two generations of cousins all enjoyed rustic Maine summers filled with adventure. We explored stretches of beach, throwing ourselves into punishing waves. Rocky cover protected us kids from the heavier tides and offered tidal pools filled with small red and blue crabs, mussels, and every now and then, a tiny baby lobster.

Years later when I opened Pearl Oyster Bar, it was those Kennebunkport summers, as well as the decade I spent living there, that gave me the idea for a Maine-inspired seafood restaurant. My family, especially my grandmother Pearle, after whom I named the restaurant, was also an inspiration, and when I decided to write a cookbook I knew it would have to be more than a collection of recipes: it was about family history too. How, for instance, did my young, liberal, cosmopolitan Jewish family end up visiting a conservative, seafaring town like Kennebunkport way back in 1919? Since I never really knew that much about the Goldsmiths, it was going to be a challenge. I grew up in a family who didn't talk about themselves. As my cousin Louise says, "Goldsmiths never talk about Goldsmiths." Not that this was unusual for a generation who lived most of their lives before the 1970s, when the parsing and dissecting of feelings became a national pastime.

So I ransacked the withering old Victorian in Kennebunkport, Maine, that my mom had purchased as a summer house years ago. Because of our busy lives, however, it had become a rental property and storage space for my grandparents' trunks. There were sepia-toned photographs, packets of letters, and stacks of old postcards that hadn't been looked at in decades. I asked questions of everyone who was still alive (in the family and out of it), read old obituaries from newspapers across the country, and tried to track down long lost family members on the Internet. Slowly my grandparents and Goldsmiths of all ages began to reveal themselves. What became startling clear to me was that without my family, the majority of whom I had never met, there would have been no Pearl Oyster Bar.

Collectively and separately my family all fell in love with Maine, especially the three generations of Goldsmith women, Pearle, my mother Elenor, and me. The summer days we spent together are always with me: the picnics on Gooch's Beach, the cocktails on the breakwater surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and visits to roadside vegetable stands for tiny Maine blueberries, juicy ears of sweet corn, and plum tomatoes so fresh they're still speckled with mud. Each year I return to eat lobsters at Nunan's and chicken potpie at the Maine Diner. I walk the same beaches I did as a child, smiling the same smile, just as I did last summer and the summer before, and almost every summer of my life.

Excerpted from "Lobster Rolls and Blueberry Pie by Rebecca Charles © April 2003 by Rebecca Charles. Excerpted by permission ReganBooks (USA) Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.