Inspired by watching a recent episode of The Restaurant Man about a lady opening up a Scandinavian Restaurant, I decided I wanted to have a go at making gravadlax. For some reason I thought this may be horrendously difficult. Turns out it’s one of the simplest things I’ve done in a while! This recipe is what I used for basic cure, but you can add other things that take your fancy to give it particular flavour. I’ve seen such things as crushed juniper berries and coriander seeds, and lots of different fresh herbs, as well as zests of other citrus fruits, and beetroot gives gorgeous pinky tinge around the edge of the finished product. I served mine with salad and a mustardy vinaigrette composed of english and wholegrain mustard, lemon, olive oil, cremefraiche and seasoning.
Ingredients:
- fillet of good quality salmon (skin on) – size of you choice. Ours was about 500g so our measurements of the cure ingredients are for this. You can easily upscale them!
- 6 tbsp sea salt
- 6 tbsp caster sugar
- zest one lemon
- 1 tsp cracked black pepper
- 1 tbsp gin or vodka
Method:
- Mix all the cure ingredients together (salt, sugar, gin, pepper and zest)
- Scatter about 1 third of the mix in a shallow dish
- Place the salmon skin side down on top of this
- Scatter the rest of the mix on top of the salmon and pack it around the salmon as best you can
- Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for around 24-48hours.
- Lift the salmon out of the liquid it will now be lying in
- Carve into as thin slices as you can manage
- If there’s any left, re wrap in cling film and it will last for weeks in the fridge. ( Well, it won’t as if you’re anything like me it’ll be gone pretty quick!)
Happy eating :)