Gravlax

"A standard on our holiday table, either Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve. You don't have to buy smoked salmon - you can make your own gravlax. This version is very delicious. Count on refrigerating the gravlax with the spices and dill for 3-4 days before serving. Of Scandinavian origin."
 
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photo by Peter J photo by Peter J
photo by Peter J
Ready In:
20mins
Ingredients:
10
Serves:
6-8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Rinse the fillets in cold water and pat them dry with paper towels.
  • Crush the caraway seeds, aniseed, juniper berries, red pepper flakes, and black peppercorns using a mortar and pestle.
  • Or place the spices on a cutting board or other hard surface and crush them with the underside of a heavy skillet.
  • Combine with the salt, sugar, and dill.
  • Place one of the fillets skin side down in a deep ceramic dish just big enough to hold the fillets.
  • Rub the fillet with half the spice and dill mixture.
  • Rub the other fillet with the remaining mixture and place it skin side up on top of the first, creating a salmon'sandwich' with all the spices and dill in-between.
  • Pour the aquavit on top, cover the dish with plastic wrap, and place a heavy weight, such as two heavy plates or a saucepan, on top of the fish.
  • Refrigerate for 3 to 4 days, turning the fish every 12 hours and basting it with the brine that accumulates in the dish.
  • To serve, dust off some of the spices and slice the fish into thin slices, on the diagonal- the way they cut smoked salmon, with a sharp thin knife.
  • Serve with mustard sauce and dark rye bread, for open-faced sandwiches, or with mustard, pickles, and capers.

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Reviews

  1. First time I've made Gravlax and loved this, so much nicer than store-bought! I used brandy and left for around 24 hours using the stated preparation method but then transferred to two vacuum sealed Food Saver bags and left another 3 days giving them the odd squeeze to move the brine around. That worked really well and saved removing the plastic wrap to baste each time.
     
  2. very nice used dried dill weed gave me a chance to use morter and pesel i follewed peters idea of prep turned out very well zaar tour 6
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<style>body { background: url("http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3512121819_f2f1aaf050.jpg?v=0"); background-repeat: repeat-y; }</style> OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages! I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure. So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call. What did I do wrong? Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths. I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time. That's all for now.
 
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