Home-cured Salmon. I was brainstorming my ideal brunch menu and knew I wanted lox but had never thought to make my own. Cut to a week later and I am flipping through my Love Japan cookbook and they have a recipe for Gravlax. Lox is salted and then smoked, wheras Gravlax are cured in a salt, sugar and herb mixture. It allows us to enjoy salmon in a raw texture, in a safe and astonishingly delicious way. Take a journey with me here it's not hard and is such a great way to use salmon! Once I found out I could cure salmon on my own, it was game on. These Gravlax are such a great way to utilize salmon and it keeps in the fridge for a week!
Gravlax takes about 5 minutes to make and 3 days until you can eat it. It needs to sit in the fridge and be under pressure (a few cans on top of the containers they're in will work) Each day I flipped the salmon, basted it with the curing liquid in the container and re set in the fridge. By day 3 it's ready to slice and eat.
Some ways to enjoy this recipe:
My favorite way to have a bagel is with scallion cream cheese and lox on an everything bagel.
On top of a homemade poke' bowl! Top your rice with nori, edamame, avacado,
pickled red onions, cilantro, lime and your Gravlax (cured salmon)
Make salmon crispy rice
Make salmon rice wraps with some thai basil, sweet chili and red cabbage.
What You'll Need:
2 pounds atlantic salmon SKIN ON
(farmed usually will be fattier and thus yield a better texture)
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped dill
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch knob of ginger, grated
For the Cream cheese:
1 block cream cheese
3 scallions chopped (greens and whites)
pinch salt
pinch pepper
1 tbsp Everything Bagel seasoning**
^^ to make, add all ingredients to a food processor!
Let's Make It:
Take out your fish filets and set them on parchment paper skin side down.
Remove any visible pin bones or scales.
Mix your sugar, salt, ginger and garlic together in a small bowl.
Rub your curing mixture on your fish liberally on both sides. Top with your fresh dill.
Place into a glass container and cover with plastic wrap. Weigh it down slightly by setting something like canned vegetables on top to help draw the liquid out of the salmon.
Each day drain some of the liquid, flip the salmon and use the rest of the liquid to baste.
By day 3 the salmon will be more firm and slightly smaller. Rinse the salmon and pat dry with paper towels.
Using a sharp knife, cut thin slices/strips of the salmon and serve!
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