Scandinavian Gravlax

Ingredients

For the first time, this year I tried to prepare a gravlax salmon! It is a Scandinavian traditional dish made from salmon dried with salt and sugar and pressed.

I followed this time a recipe found in a French magazine of cuisine.
I give you the recipe:
- 2 fillets of 500 hrs of fresh salmon
- 3 tbsp. of sugar
- 3 tbsp of salt
- 1 tbsp of ground pepper (I used 5 different peppers: white, black, green and pink berries)
- dill or fennel leaves.

You need to prepare it 2 days in advance.

Gravlax preparation

1/ Mix together in a bowl, the sugar, salt and pepper.

2/ Put in a plate one of the 2 fillets the skin at the bottom. Cover it with the mix of the sugar, salt and pepper. Cover it with the fennel and then put the second fillet on the top, the skin outside, like a sandwich!

3/ Cover it with a plastic wrap and put some weight on the top in order to press the salmon. The sugar and salt will dehydrate the salmon.

4/ Place it in the fridge for 48h, taking care to drain off the water every 8h approx.

Salmon Slicing

5/ After at least 48h (but you can keep it a little bit more if needed), unwrap the salmon and take off the salt and sugar mix as well as the green leaves. Rinse under water and wipe with kitchen paper. Keep the fillets in an air-tight box.

6/ For the tasting, 1h before the service, take out the salmon, and slice it in thin slices. It is recommended to use a salmon knife (or ham knife), long and flexible in order to get better slices.

Gravlax Salmon by Stephi

7/ Place the small slices on plate, and decorate with some lemon peel, quarters of lemons and some watercress sprouts.
Serve with bread or knäckebröd with some spicy sauce prepared with quark, mustard, maple syrup, salt and pepper! You can also add some curry if you want an exotic touch.

Delicious, easy, and this fantastic sentence for you this year: I made it!!!!!
Enjoy!