Gravlax

I mentioned gravlax in my last entry and I guess that is as good a reason for any to give my recipe for it. I serve it with some brown bread (or just croutons), horseradish crème fraiche (a couple of tablespoons of freshly grated horseradish mixed in with a half a cup of crème fraiche), and a ginger-dijon gastrique (in honor of Barbara Tropp—recipe follows).

Gravlax


2 lb fillet of fresh, wild salmon. Have the fishmonger remove the bones or do it yourself using tweezers.
1 tb malt whiskey
1/3 cup salt
¼ cup sugar
1 tb peppercorns.
1 bunch dill

1. Rinse and dry salmon. Place a couple of cuts on the skin side.
2. Sprinkle whiskey on flesh side of salmon.
3. Place peppercorns in pan and toast until aromatic—just 2 or 3 minutes at most. Crush either in mortar or with side of knife and mix with salt and sugar.
4. Cover flesh side of salmon with sugar/salt/pepper mixture. Place dill on top.
5. Place fish, skin side down on plastic wrap and place in non reactive dish. I use a pyrex casserole.
6. Every twelve hours or so (this is not a precise affair), pour liquid out. Salmon is ready after two days and is good for another day or two.
7. Remove all of the dill from the fish and throw away

And this is where the fun begins. Take your sharpest, longest knife and begin slicing across the grain, making the slices as thin and as large as possible. You’ll find at first that you’re just getting chunks. But you will eventually get long, thin slices or at least longer, thinner slices. The trick is to try almost fighting against your own slice—don’t let the knife dig in to the salmon, let it push against the salmon. Of course, most of the slices will be abject failures—they won’t look anywhere near as nice as they do at the local appetizing counter. Of course, you’re not slicing it 8 hours a day with knives that are only used to slice fish. Don’t worry—it is still impressive. You can also arrange it on or off bread to obscure the imperfections. And those little awkward little thick bits are great minced. You can even put them on top of a little dollop of the crème fraiche and put a sprig of dill on top.


Ginger-Dijon Gastrique

2 one-inch coins of ginger, crushed
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar

½ cup Dijon mustard (Maille is my preferred brand)

1. Place ginger and sugar in a heavy bottomed pan and heat.
2. When sugar begins to caramelize, stir a couple times and add vinegar. Turn down heat and let sugar dissolve. Boil down for a few minutes and turn off heat.
3. Discard ginger and add liquid to mustard. If not mustardy enough, add more mustard.