Gravlax Swedish Sugar And Salt Cured Salmon Recipes

Steps:

• For the salmon, remove all bones with a pair of tweezers, but leave the skin on.
• Rinse.
• Mash the dill stems in a mortar with a little of the salt.
• Mix with the rest of the salt, the sugar and pepper.
• Save the dill leaves for the sauce.
• Cover the flesh side of the fillets with the mixture, and place the fillets flesh-to-flesh in a tray made of glass or stainless steel.
• Cover with plastic foil and put a heavy weight on top (e. g. the mortar or a brick).
• Keep refrigerated for 72 hours, turning the fillets every 12 hours.
• Do not discard the liquid that forms.
• Scrape off the spices and discard the liquid.
• The salmon will keep refrigerated for about a week.
• For the sauce, mix mustard, sugar and vinegar.
• Add the oil a little at the time (as for mayonnaise), constantly stirring.
• Just before serving, add lots of dill and salt and pepper to taste.
• Slice the salmon with a sharp, flexible knife in big, thin slices parallell to the skin.
• Arrange the ice-cold salmon on lettuce leaves with slices of lemon.
• Serve the sauce separately.
• Also serve toasted bread and butter.

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:

• Remove any small bones from the fillets with a pair of tweezers or needle-nosed pliers.
• Mix the sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl.
• Cover the bottom of a baking dish with 1/3 the dill and rub half of the sugar-salt mixture into the first fillet, on both sides, and lay it skin side down on top of the dill.
• Cover with 1/3 of dill.
• Prepare the other salmon fillet in the same way, and cover with the remaining fillet, skin side up, with the remaining dill on top.
• Cover in plastic wrap, place a cutting board with some heavy weights on top and marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
• Remove from plastic wrap and discard accumulated juices.
• Rewrap and refrigerate another 24- 48 hours.
• Scrape off the marinade and slice paper thin.
• Serve with Mustard Dill Sauce (Recipe #68168).

Steps:

• Mix together all the ingredients except the salmon.
• Place the salmon skin side down on a large sheet of plastic wrap.
• Cover the flesh side of the fish with the salt mixture, coat it completely.
• Wrap the fish well in plastic wrap.
• Refrigerate for at least 24 hour, preferably 36.
• Unwrap the salmon and rinse off the cure. Dry then slice on the bias.

Steps:

• 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.

Steps:

• Place salmon, skin-side-down, on a large sheet of plastic wrap.
• Combine peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard, salt and sugar and press evenly onto flesh side of both salmon fillets.
• Remove salmon from plastic and place one salmon fillet in dish large enough to hold it and sprinkle with 2 tbsp vodka.
• Lay dill sprigs in a heavy layer over it.
• Place second salmon fillet on top so that flesh sides meet.
• Spoon over remaining vodka.
• Cover with plastic wrap, place a tray inside the dish on top of salmon. Weigh down with tin cans or other heavy weights.
• Refrigerate for 2 days, turning over and spooning over juices every 12 hours.
• To serve, remove from the marinade, scrape away dill but leave on seasonings, slice thinly and sprinkle with extra crushed peppercorns, crushed coriander seeds and chopped dill, if desired.
• Serve on dill pancakes with the mustard sauce.
• Serves 6 as an Hors-d'oeuvre, with leftovers.