The Eaten Path: Try gravlax for another way to savour Fraser River sockeye
A rookie tries this sumptuous Scandinavian technique to cure filets of B.C.'s rare bounty
After I posted about the sockeye I bought on Skowkale from First Nations fishers early last week, someone I know asked me where I got it because she was after one to make gravlax.
I've eaten a lot of lox in my life, something I love in the traditional way with cream cheese, red onion, capers on a bagel. But gravlax? I haven't tried that.
That person shared a link to a recipe for this Scandinavian dish of salmon cured with salt, sugar, and dill, which results in a creamy, soft, lox-like piece of fish that's closer to sashimi than any cooked version. Gravlax looks a lot like lox but differs in that gravlax is cured, not smoked, whereas lox is cured and lightly smoked. But both are often served in similar ways.
This is a very simple recipe but requires a little bit of patience: Two days to be precise. The fish is simply cured in the mixture for 48 hours, cleaned off and dried out, and sliced paper thin, similarly delicious with lemon juice, red onion, and capers. But this homemade version was so good, I skipped the cream cheese and just enjoyed it on crackers or with no starch at all. Delicious.
This recipe, below the video, is adapted slightly from one on Simply Recipes.
Salmon gravlax
Ingredients
- 2 centre-cut pieces skin-on boneless salmon
- 4 tablespoons fine or coarse sea salt
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
- 1 bunch fresh dill sprigs, cut into pieces
- 1/2 red onion, finely chopped, to garnish
- 1/4 cup capers, to garnish
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to garnish
- Extra dill, to garnish
Method
- Remove all pin bones from the salmon by using your fingertips feeling along the flesh. Use your fingers if you can, tweezers or clean pliers if you can't, to gently pull them out being careful not to tear the flesh too much.
- In a bowl, mix together the salt, sugars, and fennel seeds.
- In a flat glass dish just large enough to hold one of the filets, sprinkle one quarter of the curing mixture on the bottom. Place one filet skin side down then place half of the curing mixture on the flesh of this piece of fish and put your chopped dill.
- Place the second filet flesh side down and firmly press them together. Then sprinkle the last quarter of curing mixture over top.
- Cover the dish with plastic wrap, but a small cutting board on top, which you will weigh down with, well, anything heavy. Use a brick, two big cans of tomatoes, I used a heavy metal mortar and pestle.
- Put this in the fridge and don't touch it for 24 hours at which time you flip the fish over.
- After 48 hours, bring it out of the fridge, wash off the curing mixture and pat the filets dry with paper towel.
- Now the fun part. Put the salmon skin side down on a cutting board. With the sharpest knife you have, carefully slice the fish in paper thin ribbons leaving the skin behind. Use a knife not sharp enough (ahem, as I did) and it will start to tear.
- Serve on a platter with chopped red onions, capers, sprinkle with fresh lemon juice, and more fresh dill. Best eaten just like this on small crostinis, Melba toasts, or any of your favourite crackers.
Happy eating!
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Paul J. Henderson
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