April in the raw post: How to make gravadlax

When Brittany of Real Sustenance asked me to participate in her April in the Raw event, I signed up without question. Then I started to think about it and realized that the word ‘Raw’ actually quite scares me. I’ve been feeling a bit bombarded by ‘Raw’ lately. When I walk into my local Wholefoods there is a big rack full of Raw foods. Some of them look really good, but they are all horrifically expensive and I spend half of my time trying to figure out what anything is.

Silly really, as we eat lots of raw stuff. Raw veg, fruit, smoothies with raw ingredients and – when I come to think of it – raw fish.

The contributors to April in the Raw to date have done an amazing job of demistifying raw. There have been raw chocolate treats and raw dips and raw cheese. All look really good and not quite as terrifying as I expected. Brittany also outlines the heath benefits of raw food on her April in the Raw page. All contributors are listed there and it really is worth checking out their posts.

My contribution is to regurgitate a post from last year on how to make gravad lax. I love this stuff. I could live off it every day – well, I think I could. We make it at Christmas time, but I feel another batch is well overdue.

How to make gravadlax

We select two evenly sized pieces of salmon, each weighing around 3/4 of a pound. We select mid-pieces so that they are a little thicker. If they are already frozen, so we can move right on to the curing process. If you buy fresh salmon, always ensure that you freeze it first before making the lox. The freezing ensures that all bacteria are killed. The size of the pieces doesn’t really matter, as long as you ensure that both pieces are equal.

Once you have defrosted your salmon pieces, make sure you check for any fish bones by running your forefinger over the fish. Pull out any bones with a pair of tongs.

Take a handful of white and black peppercorns, mix them together and crush them. Ideally with a pestle and mortar to release their full flavor.

Finely chop the rind of one lemon – preferably organic.

Roughly chop a bunch of dill. We managed to get amazing fresh dill from the Farmers Market. Just perfect.

Coat one piece of the de-boned salmon with the chopped dill.

Then squeeze over the juice from one lemon.

Pour over the crushed peppercorns.

And add the chopped lemon rind on top.

Pour a good few slugs of olive oil over the top. A good quality olive oil really will make a difference. Then lay the other piece of salmon on top.

Press down firmly on the salmon. Place another plate on top to cover and put the salmon in the fridge, wedged between two plates. Put something on top of the plates to weight them down. The salmon will now sit in the fridge for 3 to 4 days (ideally 4). The salmon needs to be turned half way, so that the bottom piece is now on top.

After 4 days, slice the salmon with a fillet or sashimi knife. Cut the fish at an angle, ensuring that you get nice smooth pieces.

Lay the pieces out on a serving tray, or plate. Serve with mustard sauce.

Here’s how to make the sauce:

2tbs wholegrain mustard

1tsp honey

4 tbs olive oil

1 tbs red wine vinegar

2tbs finely chopped fresh dill

pinch sugar

pinch black pepper.

Mix the ingredients together and serve a little with each slice of lox. Delicious!

As a re-cap of what you need for the lox itself:

2 pieces of salmon (preferably Wild Alaskan). Mid pieces, equal in size.

1 lemon

1/4 cup of black and white peppercorns

olive oil

bunch of fresh dill