Gravadlax Recipes

Steps:

• Cure the salmon: Lay salmon skin-side down, flesh-side up in a glass or stainless-steel baking dish. (A large lasagna dish works well.) In a small bowl, toss together the salt, sugar and pepper until blended. Sprinkle the mixture over the salmon evenly, with abandon, until fully covered, as if under a blanket of snow. Use all of it.
• Spread all the chopped dill on top of the cure-covered salmon to make a thick, grassy carpet.
• Lay plastic wrap or parchment paper over the salmon to cover and press down, then place a heavy weight - such as a 2-gallon zip-top bag filled with water - on top, to weigh heavily on the curing fish. Refrigerate just like this, without disturbing, for 5 days, turning the salmon over midway through the cure - on Day 3 - then covering and weighting it again.
• To serve, mix together the softened butter, dill, shallot and mustard until well blended.
• Remove salmon from the cure, which has now become liquid, brushing off the dill with a paper towel, then set fillet on a cutting board.
• With a long, thin, beveled slicing knife tilted toward the horizon, slice salmon thinly, stopping short of cutting through the skin. Generally, you begin slicing a few inches from the tail end and you slice in the direction of the tail, moving your knife back, slice by slice, toward the fatter, wider belly portion of the fillet. The last slices are always hard to get. Once you have shingled the fillet, run your knife between skin and flesh, releasing all the slices, then transfer them to parchment until ready to serve.
• Spread the compound butter on bread, then drape sliced gravlax on top, and eat as open-faced sandwiches.

Steps:

• Mix salt, sugar and pepper. Rub the fish with the mixture. Add dill. Wrap in foil and put in a dish. Refrigerate for 36 to 48 hours, with a light weight on top of the fish. Turn the salmon several times.
• Before serving, scrape off the dill and seasoning and cut into thin slices on the diagonal.
• Serve with Hovmastarsas, sweet dill and mustard sauce.
• Whisk together mustard, sugar and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the oil in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Add the chopped dill. Store in refrigerator.

Steps:

• Whisk together the Dijon mustard, honey mustard, whole-grain mustard, ground mustard, sugar, and vinegar in a medium bowl. Combine the olive and grapeseed oils in a small measuring cup. Slowly add the oil mixture to the mustard mixture, whisking constantly, until emulsified. Stir in the dill and salt.

Steps:

• Place the salmon fillet on a chopping board, skin-side down, and slice at an angle with a sharp knife to make long, thin slices as you would for smoked salmon. Discard the skin.
• Using a pestle and mortar, roughly grind the coriander seeds with the sugar, 1 tsp coarse sea salt and some white pepper. Add half the lemon juice and sprinkle all over the salmon slices, ensuring they are well coated. Cover with cling film and chill for 30 mins.
• In a small bowl, mix together the oil, herbs, remaining lemon juice and the zest. Drizzle over the salmon and serve with the lemon slices, toasted rye bread and soured cream.

Steps:

• Place salmon on a parchment paper-lined work surface. Remove any remaining bones. Wipe salmon with a damp cloth, being careful not to tear fish.
• In a medium bowl, combine salt, sugar, and peppercorns. Select a shallow dish big enough to hold one fillet; place one-third of the dill in the bottom. Place 1 salmon fillet, skin-side down, on top of dill. Rub one-third of the salt mixture into flesh of fish, and top with half of remaining dill. Rub half of remaining salt mixture into flesh of the second half of salmon, and place, flesh-side down, on top of dill. Rub remaining salt mixture into skin, and top with remaining dill.
• Wrap dish tightly in plastic wrap. Place a small board or baking dish on top, and weight it down. Refrigerate for at least 36 hours and up to 48 hours.
• Scrape off seasonings; discard. Slice salmon on the bias, and serve garnished with pumpernickel bread, cucumber slices, hard-boiled eggs, salmon roe, and sour cream.

Steps:

• Peel potatoes and cut into very thin chips. A mandolin makes this easy; otherwise thinly slice, stack them and cut through the stack into sticks. Put the chips in a bowl and cover with cold salted water.
• Cut the gravadlax into wide strips. Finely chop the onions. Melt a large knob of butter in a small pan, add the onion and fry for 5 mins. Butter the inside of a shallow ovenproof dish, about 1.2 litre capacity. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5.
• Drain potatoes and spread one third over the dish. Season well. Scatter half the gravadlax and onion on top, then cover with another third of the potatoes. Scatter over remaining gravadlax and onion. Cover with remaining potatoes and season well. Warm cream and milk in a small pan until it simmers, then pour over the potatoes. Dot the top with butter and bake for 1 hr until potatoes are tender and the top golden. Cool for 5 mins before serving with a green vegetable such as broccoli or snap peas.

Steps:

• Make the dressing first. Put the mustard, honey, garlic, vinegar and some seasoning in a cup, and whisk in the oil in a steady stream. Stir in the cream, then check the seasoning - it should be sweet-sour.
• Put some of the lemon juice in a mixing bowl. Peel the celeriac and cut the flesh into matchsticks, tossing these in the lemon juice as you go to stop the flesh discolouring.
• Quarter the fennel and remove any coarse outer leaves. Trim the tips, reserving any tufty fronds. Cut out the core from each piece. Using a very sharp knife or a mandolin, slice the fennel lengthways - the slices should be almost transparent. Toss with the celeriac and add some more lemon juice.
• Cut the onion as finely as possible (it's best to do this on a mandolin too). Halve the apples, core and cut into matchsticks (there's no need to peel them). Add to the bowl with the onions, and add a little more lemon juice (to keep the apple from turning brown). Chop any fennel fronds and add along with the dill. Toss with the dressing.
• Divide the salad between eight plates with some gravadlax alongside, or serve the gravadlax and offer the salad in a large bowl.