Gravlax, One of our Favourite, Easy, Swedish Dishes

One of Peter’s favourite Swedish dishes is Gravlax and he makes this frequently. While I’ve always said, “it’s so easy to make yourself”, this was the first time I actually did it myself. And I can confirm… it’s easy! All you need is a bit of time.

When we have friends over for dinner, we often start with Gravlax. This is because you can prepare most of it in advance and it can be quickly served. People feel like they get served something special when you say you cured the salmon yourself.

Gravlax can be served in so many ways! With knackebrod, potato salad, a mustard-dill sauce, sour cream… So even though we serve it a lot, by changing the sides or the sauce, we feel like we are still presenting new dishes.

Karin

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Ingredients

• 2 fillets of salmon, skin on – my pieces were about 1,200 grams
• 75 grams salt
• 150 grams sugar
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 bunches or packets of dill
• 2 gloves (optional)
• Cling wrap

Variations

Want to change it up a bit? Replace the dill with sweet basil (NOT Thai basil!).

Serve with any of the following

• Dill-mustard sauce – see recipe at the bottom
• Sour cream
• Knackebrod
• Potato salad

TIP: Wear rubber or latex gloves to avoid your hands smelling like salmon for the rest of the day.

Method

1. Mix the salt, sugar and white pepper.
2. Wash the dill.
3. Prepare the salmon
4. Stretch a piece of cling wrap on your kitchen counter and put the two salmon pieces on the cling wrap, skin side down.
   TIP: Put the pieces on top of each other and position them so their shape mirrors the other.
5. Divide the salt and sugar mix into two portions and spread each portion over each piece of salmon, rubbing them into the salmon.
6. Divide the dill and place on top of the salmon pieces.
7. Carefully lift one salmon piece and place it upside down on top of the other piece so the dill is on top of each other
8. Tightly wrap the cling wrap around the salmon pieces, add 1 or 2 more layers of cling wrap so it is tightly wrapped.
9. Put the salmon in a flat oven dish or bowl and place something heavy on top (e.g. cartons of milk / bottles of wine, etc.). This is so the liquid can seep out and stay in the dish.
10. Place the salmon in the fridge.
11. Every 12 hours, turn the salmon upside down and remove any liquid from the bowl.
12. After 3 days unwrap the salmon and then rewrap the pieces individually.
    TIP: Leave the dill on the salmon. You can cut the salmon into smaller portions if you prefer.
13. Place the salmon in the freezer for at least 24 hours.
14. 12 hours or more, before serving, remove the salmon from the freezer and allow it to defrost (this can take up to 12 hours or more.
    TIP: You can leave the salmon in the freezer for a longer timeframe, just give it about 12 hours to defrost.
15. When the salmon is defrosted, scrape off the remaining dill and the salt and sugar mix.
16. With a very sharp knife, remove the skin then cut the salmon diagonally in thin slices.

To make the dill-mustard sauce

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
• 2 tablespoons honey or palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons chopped dill
• ¾ cup rapeseed oil or any other vegetable oil (not olive oil though!).

Method

1. Mix the mustards, honey or sugar and dill with an electric whisk or pestle and mortar
2. Once sugar is dissolved, slowly add the remaining ingredients and mix well until the mixture thickens and emulsifies

We served our gravlax with dill crackers from IKEA and the dill-mustard sauce!

Smaklig måltid!

Images provided by Karin Van Vliet. Read our interview with Karin to find out more about her and EATSingapore.