Make Gravlax From those Sockeye

[pianoman9701]

Gravlax is a Scandinavian process of preserving fish. Nowadays, it's used mostly with bagels and cream cheese and is very popular in Jewish delis and upscale breakfast restaurants. It's easy but a little time consuming to make.

Ingredients:
Sockeye or king salmon fillets, boned
1 cup honey
2 ounces of finely ground sea salt (no iodine). You can finely grind it in the blender
4 ounces of nice brandy, cognac, good scotch or whiskey, or vodka. Don't use cheap booze

Equipment:
Two each large deep (2") baking pans of equal dimensions
Ziplock bags
Paper Towels
Heavy flat rock or Several large #5 tin cans

put all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl or large measuring cup and stir until the honey and salt have dissolved. This may take some time. 40 seconds in the microwave will add just enough heat to help everything dissolve. Once the mixture is right, place the fillets in it in a zip lock or vacuum bag and get as much air out as you can so it completely covers the fillets. Put in the fridge for 1-2 days, turning it over a couple of times to make sure it's marinating evenly.

After marinating, take the fillets out and pat them dry with paper towels. Lay them flat on a cutting board and completely cover them on both sides with a layer of salt. Wrap them in clean, dry paper towels and place them in a clean ziplock bag next to each other, not stacked, with all of the air out of the bag. Place these in one of the baking pans. Put the other baking pan on top and the heavy rock in that, putting weight on the fish. Place in the fridge.

For the first two days, re-salt and change the paper towels every 12 hours. For the next two days, re-salt and change the paper towels after 24 hours. At the end of the 2nd 24-hour period, the fillets should still have a little salt on them and the paper towels should be only slightly damp. If all the salt is gone and the towels are more than slightly damp, then salt and paper for one more day. The gravlox are done and should have an appearance of almost gummy bears when you slice into them. They can now be kept in the fridge for months in ziplocks. However, they won't last that long. You'll end up going through it in short order!

To serve, slice very thinly on a bias/angle to get bigger slices and serve over bagels and cream cheese with chopped red onions, capers, and finely diced tomatoes. Tip: If you put the onions, tomatoes and capers on the cream cheese and then the Lax over that, they won't fall off the bagels as much when you eat them.

I just made some this week from Copper River Sockeye. I like the fattier and redder sockeye and I do trim off the fishy grayish-brown blood vessel meat, although after curing it tastes only slightly different.

[BigD]

Sounds good. I will definitely give this a try.

[pianoman9701]

Melt in your mouth good! I guess I didn't trim off all of the vessel meat but it isn't hurting the flavor.

[WSU]

I assume you use skinned fillets?

[pianoman9701]

Yes, they were skinned.

[singleshot12]

Gravlox is the best if done right. I like to use oily king or Atlantic salmon(skin on). And like to keep the recipe simple with just a little sea salt,white sugar rubbed in and with a generous amount of fresh dill. Weight down turn daily for about 3 days and then cold smoke. Haven't tried sockeye yet but i'm sure it's good too,just need to find some.
Using very fresh salmon is best but also a good idea to freeze fillets for 48 hours prior to curing to help kill any parasites

[pianoman9701]

The booze really gives it a deep flavor. My favorite is cognac, but I've done it with single malt Scotch and loved that. I've never frozen the fillets for the parasite kill. With the alcohol and salt, if they survive, they deserve a taste of my liver.

[singleshot12]

  I might try that

[akirkland]

Ahhh....right up my alley. I love the rich flavor. One of my favorites. Here is ours we made last month. "cooked" for a week before we sliced it up.

[akirkland]

Yours looks much more appealing Piano. We used frozen salt water caught silver. We will do it more this August with fresh king. I like adding fresh dill towards the end of the process.

[wildweeds]

I make mine the old country way,I got the recipe from Norways home page,The  homemade norweigen mustard sauce is AWESOME! A freind of mine goes to visit relatives every year,she says the stuff I make is exactly the way it tastes in the old country.The Seafood mustard is really good,I'll try and post it up here,it's killer on shrimp.