Graved Lax

Scandinavian Style Cured Salmon which is nice and fresh and above all easy and quick to make...
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: European, Scandinavian
Keyword: Cured Salmon, Graved Lachs, Graved Lax, Salmon
Servings: 4
Author: Sevy

Equipment

  • 1 Pestle and Mortar
  • 1 Cutting Board
  • 1 Oven Tray optional
  • 1 Vacuum Bag optional
  • 1 Weights optional

Ingredients

  • 700 grams Side of salmon Fresh and skin on!
  • 75 grams Sugar
  • 50 grams Salt
  • 50 ml Lime juice
  • 15 grams dill
  • 20 pieces Juniper berries
  • 1 tbsp Lime zest
  • 35 ml Gin

Instructions

  • Make surethe side of salmon is clear of pin bones*. Dry the fish with a paper towel. Mixthe sugar with the salt and the crushed juniper berries. If you use sea saltand courser sugar you can grind it down in a pestle and mortar adding thejuniper berries a couple at a time whilst grinding.
  • Take yourbaking tray, make sure the fish van fit in there fully stretched out. Now addthe sugar, salt and juniper berry mix. Spread evenly over the bottom of the baking tray, add the lime juice and gin and mix it in until everything isincorporated. Now you can add the dill and zest of lime. Take your salmon andplace it skin side up in the baking tray. * if using a vacuumbag skip this step and prepare on the cutting board
  • Now takesome cling film or baking sheet and position it over the salmon. Take yourweights and place these on top of the baking tray pressing the salmon down. Youdo not need to exert extra force. *if using a vacuumbag place your salmon carefully in the vacuumbag and vacuumseal it on the manual setting of your sealing machine and place in the fridge without weights
  • Now placethe salmon with the weights on, in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Up to 48 hours.
  • Aftercuring the fish for 24 hours take it out of the fridge and place it skin sidedown on a cutting board. With a very sharp knife carefully slice thin slicesoff the fish under a slight angle, the fish should release from the skin whenyou reach it.
  • Keep slicing, adding the sliced pieces to a plate or serving dish.
  • To serve, some fresh dill, crème fraiche with horse-radish or a simple honey mustardsauce.

Notes

*Pin bones
If you do have pin bones, you would want to get them out. To detect them slide en press gently down the middle of the fillet with your middle and index finger from the neck side of the fish towards the tail. If you detect any stray pin bones you can get them out with some fish thongs or some sanitized plyers even your good old tweezers will do the job be careful to pull out pin bones in the direction of the grain supporting the surrounding fish with your free hand in order to not damage the fish too much.
Tip: It is very important your fish is very fresh, the mix of salt, sugar, alcohol and acids will cure the fish, though yet it is advisable only to use day fresh fish for this recipe.