[Intro music]
Most connaisseurs (experts) are convinced that the best way of preparing salmon is Gravlax.
But to me, it is a great alternative to smoked salmon.
Gravalax is a national dish in Scandinavia.
In the original method, the fish was seasoned with salt, sugar and pepper.
Then covered with dill and buried in the hole in the ground for several weeks.
Don’t worry, we are not going to do that. So don’t look for your shovel.
Instead, let me show you how to prepare that great dish.
To make gravlax, you will need a fillet of fresh salmon,
rock salt, sugar, black pepper, star anis, Juniper berry,
zest and juice of a lime, lemon and grapefruit.
I kept their skin, I may use them later on. Fresh dill.
And then, to finish the dish, when the fish would had been cured for at least a day,
we will use chopped fresh mint, chopped dill and mustard. The mustard of course for Dijon.
First of all, let’s make the marinade.
Mix the rock salt and sugar together.
Add the citrus zest.
So the zest of the lemon, lime and grapefruit. Mix well.
Then grind the spices. Grind the peppercorn, not too fine.
Add it to the salt. Then grind the star anis .
Add it to the salt too. And do the same for the Juniper berries.
Mix well. I wish you could smell at home, the aromas of the star anis , the Juniper berry and the citrus zest being combined.
It’s fantastic! Very fragrant!
Chop the dill. So for the dill, you don’t need to remove the stems.
So we are going to chop it out upto here. Ok.
Here we go. Add the chopped dill to the salt mixture.
I kept some of the citrus skin. So I am just going to cut some into my mixture.
Just use it out. So I am using the skin of half of each citrus.
Mix it up.
Add the juices. So, but only half of it.
So half of the lemon juice, half of the grapefruit juice, and half of the lime juice for now.
Mix well. I have left the seeds and the pulp.
That’s what will give the extra flavour too. Don’t bother with it.
And it is time for us now to cure the fish.
So I am using a long, deep platter.
I am going to put the rest of the juices on the bottom of the dish.
Then I am going to place my salmon over.
If you find salmon with the skin, its fine and its preferable.
So place the skin side down. If not, do as I do.
Then add the mixture over the fish.
Cover the fish with the marinade,
the salt and the acidity from the citrus will actually cook and dry the fish.
So this is what is called curing. Ok.
So make sure everything is well covered.
Wrap the fish with plastic wrap. Here we go.
Perfect. Place some weight on the thickest part of the fish at least.
So I am using this heavy platter because its flat
and that will press down the marinade into the fish on the centre
to cure it right to the heart.
Then place the fish for 1 full day in your refrigerator.
So here my salmon was about an inch thick, so I will cure it for one day.
So you have a salmon thicker than that, because the fillet was bigger,
you may do a day and a half upto 2 days.
But the average time is 1 day of curing.
Our gravlax has been marinating for 24 hours. Let’s have a look.
So remove the weights on the salmon.
There is a lot of juice from the citrus.
But also the juice is from the salmon and the oils of the fish.
Now we are going to remove it.
And I am going to do that over the sink and I am going to wash it.
Let’s have a look. So I can feel that the fish has cured.
It’s harder. Then wash it under cold water.
Pat dry the fish. Pat dry the fish by using some clean, dry rags.
Place the fish on a clean platter. The fish is dry.
You will notice that on the tail side, the fish is actually cooked.
That comes from the acidity of the citrus.
But here, on the thicker part, its cured. It is time for us now to do the coating.
For the coating, we are going to be using Dijon mustard, fresh mint and fresh dill.
The leaves only that we are going to chop now.
I have separated the leaves from the stems for the mint and the dill.
It looks like a lot, about a good cup and cup and a half of fresh leaves.
But when it will be finely chopped, it will end up
to about 6 tablespoons of finely chopped herbs for each of them.
I have been chopping for a while,
I still have a little more chopping to do
and I am going to show you a new technique.
I am going to show you how to chop lots of herbs,
so whatever you are doing, we call it the double blade technique.
To do so, you will need 2 chef knives of the identical size. Ok.
You don’t want to have one big, longer than the other one. Ok.
You place them side by side and you will place your
left or your free hand on the top and you will do up and down.
The key is to have the same knives. So here my herbs are finely chopped.
Transfer the finely chopped herbs to a bowl.
Add the Dijon. So about 2 tablespoons and a half. Little bit more here.
So spread evenly on the fillet.
I didn’t mention, but we are brushing the meat side.
So meat side up, the skin side will be underneath.
So the fish right now is meat side up or skin side down.
Then coat the Dijon with the finely chopped herbs.
So don’t put too much on one spot. Try to spread it also evenly.
It will be ok to slice the fish and serve it right away.
The only thing is it will be difficult to cut.
This is why now, we are going to go to step 3 and that would be the drying process.
We are going to leave the salmon in the platter in the fridge
Uncovered, without plastic wrap, without anything on it;
in order to dry out in the fridge. That will allow to make beautiful, nice slices tomorrow.
Our gravlax is ready. The coating has dried out.
So now. Its time to slice it.
Use a slicer which is like a fillet knife but longer.
So it’s a little bit soft and it’s a thin blade, very sharp.
Remember the tail side was in the juice, so it will be little more cooked.
So I won’t… If you want to make thin slices, you want to start little bit further.
Preserve your gravlax.
Serve the gravlax with 2 lemon slices.
You may serve the gravlax with sour cream on the side
or crème fraîche or toasted sandwich bread.
The whole salmon is ready.
I want to show you the.. how the salmon looks like.
Remember, how the weight was raw.
So this color and density because it is dry, it’s really typical.
To cure salmon gravlax. You see, its dry, its firm and its not soft anymore.
I point that because we really cured the fish. We didn’t cook it.
Ok. So remember, this is very important, this is what you are looking for.
The tail is the same. It’s very nice. And I try it.
It’s very nice. So the tail side is thinner, so it’s little bit more salted.
But on the centre part of the salmon, it will be perfect.
Bon appétit! Salmon gravlax.