Gravlax Swedish Sugar And Salt Cured Salmon Recipes

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:

• 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.

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.