Gravlax is a salmon dish for people who don’t like salmon. In gravlax, the qualities that people don’t like about salmon are minimized or transformed into virtues.
If you don’t like the texture of salmon, or find it mushy, gravlax firms it up by drawing out its water content through curing it with salt and sugar. If you find salmon oily, gravlax turns that oiliness into silkiness. If you don’t like the basic flavor of salmon or find it fishy (farm-raised salmon actually tends to have a stronger flavor than wild salmon), gravlax tames that flavor with a handful of assertive spices and fresh herbs.
Gravlax is a dish that comes from Scandinavia, a region noted for its unmatched variety of cured, pickled and smoked fish dishes. Vodka or aquavit are often used to cure fish because their alcohol content acts as a flavor intensifier — and of course because they are usually drunk with cured fish. The sugar in the recipe balances the salt, the pepper adds heat and the coriander adds a citrus note. Dill, which is probably the most widely used herb in Northern and Eastern European food, gives a fresh grassy note. The odd man out in this recipe is lavender, an herb used more often in Provencal food. Here, it gives the gravlax an intense floral aroma.
Gravlax must be sliced thinly, and on a bias, to be fully appreciated. You’ll need a sharp slicing knife — if you have a smoked salmon slicing knife, which is long and thin, with shallow notches on the interior of the blade, all the better.
Gravlax
Makes about 12 portions.
Ingredients
1 3-pound piece of salmon, skin on
½ cup salt
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons coriander seeds, cracked
3 tablespoons black peppercorns, cracked
2 tablespoons dried lavender
¼ cup vodka
1 cup dill, rough chopped
Directions
With a sharp knife, make three ½-inch deep slits in the salmon skin. In a mixing bowl, mix together the salt, sugar, coriander, black peppercorns and lavender. Place of the seasoning mixture in baking dish and place salmon skin-side down on the seasoning mixture. Sprinkle the vodka on the flesh of the salmon, then top with the remaining seasoning mixture, then the dill.
Place another baking dish on top of the salmon and weigh down the salmon with a few tomato cans or something compact and heavy.
Refrigerate the gravlax for 48 hours. Remove the salmon, quickly rinse it off and pat dry with a few paper towels.
With a sharp slicing knife, slice the salmon as thinly as you can on the bias. Serve on black bread with butter and pickled onions.
