SKATE CAKES W/ CREAMY PESTO SAUCE

For ease of sauce making purposes, go bag a packet of Knorr creamy pesto sauce from your local supermarket. We make ours from scratch but that recipe will be coming out in the cookbook.

Skate is an excellent crab substitue for crab or fish cakes in this case. 1 pound of jumbo lump crab meat can be as much as $25.00 for canned crab, caught and processed in Vietnam. Take solice in the fact that this fish cake was caught and prepared by you. Even better, like shark, skate have no bones - just some cartilage to contend with. All you need to do is wing and skin your skate then poach the wings. The meat will fall right off the cartilage and can be set aside to make the cakes. Poaching is simple. Just put your wings in enough liquid to cover them and simmer them for 10 minutes, remove and drain - then pull the meat from the cartilage, and set aside.

4 skate or 8 skate wings, skinned. 1 cup bread crumbs 1/2 cup of creamy ceaser dressing. 1/2 cup of light mayo 1 tablespoon of old bay 1 tablespoon of granulated garlic powder 1 lemon 1 large tomato 1 red bell pepper Poach skinned skate wings in enough water to cover them - simmer for ten minutes. (do not boil). Remove and use a fork to pull skate meat from cartilage and set aside in bowl. Mix in bowl: bread crumbs, mayo, creamy caesar dressing, juice from 1 lemon, old bay and garlic powder, along with red pepper then gently fold in skate meat and form into cakes. Place cakes on greased cookie sheet or baking dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes - turning half way through. Prepare Knorr creamy pesto sauce in small pan. When sauce has thickened, add chopped, seeded tomatoes and simmer for 2 minutes. Plate the cakes and drizzle with the creamy pesto sauce and serve.