Ingredients
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1.2 kg/ 2½ lb salmon filletn 2 pieces, with skin on
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2 tbsp white peppercorns
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2 tsp juniper berries
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60 g/ 4 tbsp coarse sea salt(kosher salt)
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10 g/ 2 tsp light muscovado sugar
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30 g/ 2 tbsp caster sugar superfine
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25 g/ 4 tbsp dillroughly chopped including stalks
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3 tbsp Gin
Directions
Gravad lax (cured salmon) is a smörgåsbord (buffet table) classic. It is normally cured with salt and sugar and flavored with dill and white pepper. But here we have also added some gin and juniper, a popular twist in Sweden at Christmas to give the salmon a slightly more sophisticated taste.
How to Make Gingravad Lax:
- Run your fingers over the salmon to feel for any tiny pin bones. Remove any you find with tweezers.
- Coarsely crush the peppercorns and juniper berries using a pestle and mortar.
- Make your curing mixture by mixing together the salt, sugars, crushed pepper, and juniper berries.
- Take a piece of plastic wrap large enough to take both pieces of salmon.
- Spread a little of the dill and some of the curing mixture on the clingfilm.
- Place the salmon fillets skin side down on top of it.
- Rub the rest of the curing mixture over the surface of each fillet, pour the gin over and then add the remaining dill.
- Bring the two pieces together to create a sandwich, with the skin on the outside.
- Wrap up well with the plastic wrap, place in a freezer bag, excluding as much air as possible, and then tie the bag.
- Place in a dish, top with a weight (such as a smaller baking dish or plate with cans of beans on top) and leave to cure in the fridge for 48 hours, turning every 12 hours or so.
- Unwrap the fish, scrape off the dill and discard it.
- Rinse the salmon quickly under cold running water.
- Transfer to a fresh plastic bag and return it to the fridge for a further 24 hours to allow the cure to even out.
- Slice with a very sharp knife, either vertically in 5 mm (¼”) thick slices or at angle in large thin slices. Use within 2 or 3 days or freeze.
