Gravlax at the Granger's
One of Deb & Pete’s favorites…
Last week, Bellingham SeaFeast’s Executive Director, Liz Purdy, and Program Manager, Elma Burnham, shared some of their favorite seafood recipes on the blog. This week, we are bringing in our founders and board members, Deb & Pete Granger. These two have an amazingly storied history with seafood and the maritime industries; it only seems right to have them sharing a salmon recipe from their home kitchen. Read more about them and their history with SeaFeast on our Who We Are page.
Watch Pete’s video to the right for a description of the step-by-step process. Or follow the traditional gravlax recipe below. This version was originally published in Diane Morgan’s Salmon: Everything You Need to Know. These two versions vary slightly, but both are delicious!
Ingredients
1/2 cup coarse sea salt
1/2 cup sugar
one wild salmon fillet
10 sprigs fresh dill, coarsely chopped
1/4 gin or aquavit
Directions
Stir together the salt and sugar in a bowl. Sprinkle the salt mixture in the bottom of a deep glass or ceramic baking dish about the same length of the fish.
Lay the fish on top and cover with the rest of the salt and sugar mixture.
Sprinkle the dill over the top of the fish; slowly drizzle the gin evenly over the top, without rinsing off the salt mixture.
Cover the fish with a large piece of plastic wrap and weigh down with another smaller, flat-bottomed baking dish. Add weight to the pan - something like a few cans of tomatoes or beer.
Place the weighted set-up in the fridge for 2 days, or up to 5 days. Flip the salmon once a day. Some liquid will be released from the fish; drain this off if it starts to submerge the fish in liquid but try not to lose all the salt.
To serve, gently scrape off the dill (salt will have dissolved) and cut the fish crosswise (against the grain) into thin slices. Garnish with pickled vegetables on pumpernickel, or serve on bagels with cream cheese!
Enjoy!
