GRAVLAX, SALT-CURED SALMON

Gravlax, Salt-Cured Salmon image

With a sharp knife carefully slice on the diagonal to get slices as thin as you can without them falling to bits, leaving the skin. With practice you can become pretty good at this. Serve on bagels with cream cheese, a thin slice of onion and capers, and a squeeze of lemon. Or on toast, or crackers. The traditional Swedish way is on pumpernickel bread with equal parts dijon mustard, sugar, white vinegar emulsified with 3 parts regular olive or canola oil.

Provided by Kevinf

Time P3D

Yield 2 fine pieces of gravlax, 4 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 7

Ingredients

1 lb salmon, commercially frozen the process kills parasites, skin on
1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
1 tablespoon medium kosher salt
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar (powdered)
1/2 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried dill (5 sprigs) or 1/4 ounce fresh dill (5 sprigs)

Steps:

It's best to buy two sides of the same salmon, or at least two opposites sides that are fairly close in size.
The above ingredients are for 1lb of salmon, so adjust (presumably) upwards as required.
Defrost salmon and pat dry with paper towels.
Remove any bones you detect with clean pliers.
Lay flat on a baking sheet covered with plastic wrap, skin side down, so that you can easily flip one side onto the other, back the way they would be if it were a whole fish.
Take the salt, sugar and pepper and mix thoroughly in a bowl.
Evenly apply the salt/sugar/pepper mix onto the salmon flesh, being careful to cover every part, with a little less for the thin ends, and more on the thicker parts.
Sprinkle the dill over the salted fish.
Flip one side over onto the other making a sandwich.
Place one end of a long strip of muslin underneath the fish.
Roll the fish over toward you, and tug a little on the muslin to tighten. Repeat until out of muslin.
You don't need to tug very hard, each time you do it the pressure increases more and more.
Place the fish on the baking sheet to catch drips and place in the fridge.
Turn once or twice per day for three days.
Unwrap, and rinse off the cure mix and dill quick as you can so the salmon doesn't soak too much. Carefully pat dry with paper towels. This will keep for a week or freeze for 3 months.
With a sharp knife carefully slice on the diagonal to get slices as thin as you can without them falling to bits, leaving the skin.
With practice you can become pretty good at this.