Gravlax – The Scandinavian Gourmet Salmon Dish

Gravlax is a diminutive, meaning “buried salmon” in Swedish for “Gravad Lax”, however this solid, prosaic and rather boring name doesn’t come close to describing this fantastic smooth, smooth and elegant appetizer. However, gravlax got its name from the old way of preparing it, which involved salting the salmon, putting it in an old barrel, and burying it underground for several days or even several months if it was to be preserved for the winter. Modern recipes often add aquavit or vodka to salmon, but for me the plain old fashioned way is better because with gravlax, less is definitely more. No one knows when dill came into vogue, and while I loathe dill on anything else, it’s as much a part of gravlax as cream is to strawberries and cream. I have seen it made with myrtle leaves and fennel seeds, I have often wondered what it would be like with wild fennel leaves, but I had never dared to try it.

Gravlax is cured salmon, but that’s no excuse not to use the freshest salmon—even if you’ve got salmon that’s been languishing in the bottom of the fridge for a few days, give it to the cat, who’ll probably turn up his nose anyway. because they have such a strong sense of smell.

It’s not rocket science to figure out that you use the same weight of sugar as salmon and twice the salt, because at the end of the day you’re going to taste salty in a can. Americans tend to use twice as much sugar as salt, but that’s not the Scandinavian way, and it destroys the saltiness that’s the whole point of the dish.

Ingredients

500 g of salmon fillet
1 kg of coarse salt
500g of sugar
2 tablespoons ground white pepper
A large pile of fresh dill
Plastic wrap.

Method.
Clean salmon and pat dry with paper towels, place in a glass bowl, and top with your herbs. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, salt and pepper, and coat the salmon with it. Place the plastic wrap directly over the fish and weigh it. You can use anything heavy, wine bottles, old kitchen weights, but the idea is to extract the water from the salmon and make it tougher. Leave for six or seven days. A large weight is a sealed bag of small coins because the small coins roll around the fish and hit all the right places.

When ready to serve, wash and slice very, very finely with a very sharp knife and serve with some very good quality whole wheat bread and oodles of butter.

variations
The deluxe scrambled eggs are fantastic with added gravlux.

Serve it with fresh blinis and mix horseradish with crème fraiche or sour cream.

Serve cold with loads of mustard sauce.

Italian food is simple, elegant and fabulous, making the most of the freshest ingredients. Italians don’t ask how much food it is, they ask how fresh it is. The concept of a weekly store is alien to them, their fruits and vegetables are bought every day. The great thing about Italian food is the fact that they have no such thing; Italy was a separate conglomerate of states until 1870.

Each area has its own cuisine and that cuisine has been forged over centuries of geographical area and history. For example, food in the Northwest is more closely related to food in Middle Europe because it was influenced by its neighbor, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the South, Mediterranean flavors predominate, olive oils, fresh and dried fruits influenced by the Moors, tomatoes brought from the New World.