Salmon month is here

June is salmon month, or so they tell me at Pacific fresh Fish, and that's fine by me. Salmon is not my favorite fish, though a fresh piece - pan fried so the skin is crispy and the flesh is still cool and soft in the middle, will win me over every time. I had gone into the fish shop to buy sea beans but I couldn't resist the beautiful coral colored salmon on sale. I bought half a fillet, which for two people is quite a lot, and decided to cook a portion fresh for dinner and make gravlax from the rest.



I first had gravlax in Sweden at an honest to goodness smörgåsbord. Growing up in Philadelphia I had certainly had lox but never gravlax before then. I didn't care for most of the items offered on the smörgåsbord so I ate a boatload of the gravlax. The slightly sweet, oily fish combined with the pronounced dill flavor was wonderful on its own but when combined with a dark pumpernickel and mustard sauce it was divine. Of course, placed next to pickled herring and over marinated vegetables it was even better. I knew that I had to recreate this at home without the other Swedish accoutrement of course.

The keys to good gravlax are, of course, good fresh salmon and patience. The fish is amazingly simple to prepare but it takes patience to wait for the fish to cure in your fridge when you are dying to cut into it. What you will need is simple:

1 portion of salmon fillet; skin intact and small pinbones removed
2 parts granulated sugar
1 part salt (sea or table salt - not coarse)
lots of fresh dill

optional:
ground black pepper
ground mustard

glass dish large enough to hold the salmon flat
plenty of plastic wrap.



Method:

Roll out some plastic wrap on a cutting board and center the salmon fillet, skin side down. Mix the sugar, salt and optional pepper and mustard powder in a small bowl. Pour the mixture over the salmon fillet spreading to cover all the exposed flesh and pressing gently to adhere. Lay the fresh dill sprigs liberally over the top of the sugar mixture. Pull the plstic over the fish wrapping tightly. Wrap with more plastic to seal. Place into a glass dish (to collect the liquids the fish will exude) and place into the refrigerator for at least 48 hours. Thicker fillets will take longer to cure. To serve, unwrap fish and rinse well. Slice very thinly against the grain and serve with sliced dark bread, mustard/dill sauce and capers.



There is much debate over whether the fish should be weighted with something heavy during the curing process but I have not round this necessary. It may reduce the curing time for thicker cuts of fish though since the fillet I most recently did took about 72 hours to fully cure.

The dill flavor in this dish is quite pronounced so you may skip the dill in the mustard dill sauce - sour cream is also a good option as are chopped red onion and chopped egg. This dish lasts in the fridge and makes a great simple appetizer on a warm day even just topped with some chopped fresh dill. So before you freeze all that leftover salmon or throw it on the grill, try making some gravlax and I bet you'll be making some everytime you buy fresh salmon!