Danish Gravlaks is a classic Nordic dish that has been enjoyed for centuries. This cured salmon is known for its unique flavor and texture, and it can be prepared at home with relative ease. The process of making Gravlaks involves curing the salmon in a mixture of salt, sugar, and herbs, then slicing it thinly and serving it with a variety of accompaniments. In this article, we will provide you with a detailed recipe for making Danish Gravlaks, along with tips and suggestions for serving and enjoying this delicious dish.
Let's cook with our recipes!
GRAVLAX WITH MUSTARD SAUCE
Steps:
- Cut the salmon in half crosswise and place half the fish skin side down in a deep dish. Wash and shake dry the dill and place it on the fish. Combine the salt, sugar, crushed peppercorns, and fennel seeds in a small bowl and sprinkle it evenly over the piece of fish. Place the other half of salmon over the dill, skin side up. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Place a smaller pan on top of the foil and weight it with some heavy cans. Refrigerate the salmon for at least 2 and up to 3 days, turning it every 12 hours and basting it with the liquid that collects.
- Lay each piece of salmon flat on a cutting board, remove the bunch of dill, and sprinkle the top with chopped dill. With a long thin slicing knife, slice the salmon in long thin slices as you would for smoked salmon. Serve with dark pumpernickel bread and mustard sauce. You can also serve with chopped red onion and capers, if desired.
- 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon ground dry mustard
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- Combine the mustards, sugar, and vinegar in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the oil and stir in the chopped dill. Serve with the gravlax.
- Yield: 3/4 cup
GRAVLOX
Gravlox is a popular item in Scandinavian Cuisine. Some, like this one, are made with vodka.
Provided by Suzanne
Categories World Cuisine Recipes European Scandinavian
Time P1DT1h
Yield 16
Number Of Ingredients 6
Steps:
- Drape plastic wrap over a glass baking dish. Cut salmon in half lengthwise, and place one half in dish, skin side down. Mix together salt, brown sugar and pepper. Sprinkle half of mixture over salmon in the dish, cover with the chopped dill, and pour the vodka over the whole mixture.
- Sprinkle the remaining salt mixture over the remaining half of salmon. Place over the salmon in the dish, skin side up. Fold the plastic wrap snuggly over the entire salmon. Place a board over the fish and weigh it down with a heavy object.
- Refrigerate fish for 24 to 36 hours, turning every 12 hours. To serve, separate the filets, and carefully brush off the salt, sugar and dill. Cut into very thin slices with a sharp knife.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 121.4 calories, Carbohydrate 2.9 g, Cholesterol 33.5 mg, Fat 6.2 g, Fiber 0.1 g, Protein 11.4 g, SaturatedFat 1.2 g, Sodium 1355.5 mg, Sugar 2.5 g
GRAVLAX
I think of making my own gravlax - the Nordic sugar-salt cured salmon - as the gentle, blue-square cooking analog of an intermediate ski trail: It's mostly easy, but requires some experience. While butchering a whole salmon and cold smoking what you've butchered are also exhilarating milestones in the life of an advancing home cook (both a little farther up the mountain and a little steeper on the run down), buying a nice fillet and burying it in salt, sugar and a carpet of chopped fresh dill for a few days is a great confidence-building day on the slopes, so to speak. The cured gravlax will last a solid five days once sliced, in the refrigerator. If a whole side of salmon is more than you need at once, the rest freezes very satisfactorily.
Provided by Gabrielle Hamilton
Categories brunch, dinner, lunch, seafood, main course
Time P5DT30m
Yield 10 to 12 servings (about 3 pounds)
Number Of Ingredients 10
Steps:
- Cure the salmon: Lay salmon skin-side down, flesh-side up in a glass or stainless-steel baking dish. (A large lasagna dish works well.) In a small bowl, toss together the salt, sugar and pepper until blended. Sprinkle the mixture over the salmon evenly, with abandon, until fully covered, as if under a blanket of snow. Use all of it.
- Spread all the chopped dill on top of the cure-covered salmon to make a thick, grassy carpet.
- Lay plastic wrap or parchment paper over the salmon to cover and press down, then place a heavy weight - such as a 2-gallon zip-top bag filled with water - on top, to weigh heavily on the curing fish. Refrigerate just like this, without disturbing, for 5 days, turning the salmon over midway through the cure - on Day 3 - then covering and weighting it again.
- To serve, mix together the softened butter, dill, shallot and mustard until well blended.
- Remove salmon from the cure, which has now become liquid, brushing off the dill with a paper towel, then set fillet on a cutting board.
- With a long, thin, beveled slicing knife tilted toward the horizon, slice salmon thinly, stopping short of cutting through the skin. Generally, you begin slicing a few inches from the tail end and you slice in the direction of the tail, moving your knife back, slice by slice, toward the fatter, wider belly portion of the fillet. The last slices are always hard to get. Once you have shingled the fillet, run your knife between skin and flesh, releasing all the slices, then transfer them to parchment until ready to serve.
- Spread the compound butter on bread, then drape sliced gravlax on top, and eat as open-faced sandwiches.
DANISH GRAVLAKS (LOX) CURED SALMON
This is traditionally part of any Danish Smorgaasbord., Also wonderful for any recipe calling for Lox - appetizers etc. The wine and cognac cures the raw salmon. This cannot be compared to smoked salmon the process is very different nor do I recommend grilling it. It is ready after curing sliced very thinly. It is wonderfull on a bagel with cream cheese, chopped sweet onion , capers and served with scrambled eggs.
Provided by Bergy
Categories Lunch/Snacks
Time P3D
Yield 4-6 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 7
Steps:
- Combine the sugar, salt sprinkle on to the flesh side of the salmon.
- Cover loosely with fresh dill sprigs, press spices and dill into salmon.
- In a glass or ceramic shallow dish, just large enough to hold the salmon mix the cognac& wine.
- Place the salmon skin side up into the dish.
- Cover the dish loosely with plastic wrap and place a board the size to the salmon on top, weight it with apprx a 2-3 lb weight, tighten the plastic wrap Place in fridge and allow to marinate for 3-4 days.
- Transfer salmon to a cutting board and cut the salmon horizontally into thin slices.
GRAVAD LAKS (AKA GRAVAD LAX, GRAVLAX, GRAV LAX, GRAVLAKS)
Just had to cover all bases in the title there. ;) Swedish: Gravlax, Norwegian: Gravlaks. Grav means pit/hole/grave + lax/laks means salmon in the respective languages above. Frankly, I don't eat salmon, but my husband loves this dish. Make sure you flip the package in the fridge every 12 hours to evenly marinate the salmon. The yield here varies wildly depending on how much each person eats and how it's served (I've specified appetizers), so please keep that in mind. "Cook" time is marination.
Provided by Sandi From CA
Categories European
Time P2DT10m
Yield 8 appetizers
Number Of Ingredients 6
Steps:
- Rinse the filet under lukewarm water and pat dry. Remove any remaining bones with tweezers, pliers or a small child, then cut salmon in half crosswise.
- Place the filet pieces on a large piece of aluminum foil.
- Sprinkle the sugar, salt and pepper over 1/2 of the filet, then completely cover that with a thick layer of dill, making sure you only use the thin leaves of the dill and not the stems. Sprinkle the wine on last. Place the other half of salmon on top like a sandwich, skin side out.
- Wrap up the foil into a firmly closed packet, place on plate and put another plate on top. Weigh down with something heavy (I used a gallon of milk) on the top plate and put in the fridge for 48 hours, turning the salmon every 12 hours to ensure even marinating.
- When the salmon is ready, remove all the dill and set aside, then slice the salmon at a severe angle in the thinnest slices you can manage with an insanely sharp knife, parallel to the skin. The thinner the slice, the better it tastes!
- Serve with fresh dill and pepper on buttered fresh toast.
- Ok, just kidding about the small child.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 69.8, Fat 2, SaturatedFat 0.3, Cholesterol 29.6, Sodium 910.3, Carbohydrate 0.7, Sugar 0.5, Protein 11.3
GRAVLAKS (DILL-CURED SALMON)
When I think Scandinavian food, I think Gravlaks. DH makes the best, but he was no help when asked for quantities. So here is a recipe from Scandelicious that has the same basic ingredients. I like this one because it doesn't have alcohol, so it's safe to serve for parties. Though I must admit, I do like it better when there's gin or juniper berries in the cure. COOKING TIME IS MARINATING TIME
Provided by Jostlori
Categories Swedish
Time P2DT25m
Yield 12 appetizer portions
Number Of Ingredients 6
Steps:
- Dry the salmon, check for pinbones and then place both fillet pieces side by side, skin down.
- Crush the white pepper and coriander with a mortar and pestle and then mix in a small bowl with the sugar and salt.
- Spread the dill over the skinless side of the fillet halves, then spread the spiced sugar and salt in a layer on top.
- Sandwich both fillets together so that the the dill spice mixture is in the middle and the skin is outermost. Cover any exposed surface of salmon with any dill and spice mixture that tumbles out.
- Wrap VERY TIGHTLY in two layers of saran wrap (cling film) and place in a glass baking dish to catch the brine that escapes the fish as it cures.
- Refrigerate for a minimum of 24 hours and up to 48 hours.
- NOTE: Some people like to place a weight over the fish as it cures. In actual fact, it doesn't make much of a difference.
- When the gravlaks has had time to cure, take it out of the fridge, remove the wrap and wipe the fillet halves clean of the herbed spiced salt with a paper towel, pat dry and put on a board, skin down.
- Slice on the diagonal from the tail towards the middle of the fillet, slicing as thinly as possible. You do not want thick slices or chunks.
- Serve on flatbread with freshly grated horseradish, dill, or finely grated lemon zest.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 204.7, Fat 6, SaturatedFat 1.1, Cholesterol 60.8, Sodium 3200, Carbohydrate 9.1, Fiber 0.5, Sugar 8.3, Protein 27.4
GIN AND JUNIPER CURED SALMON - SCANDINAVIAN GRAVLAX
This is a slightly different Gravlax recipe than normal, as it uses gin and juniper for a clean, sophisticated and fresh taste - if you are not keen on gin - you could use vodka instead! Junipers can also be replaced by a few extra peppercorns. Gravlax (pronounced grov-lox) is from the Swedish name for this dish. Norwegians call it gravlaks and the Danish refer to it as Gravad laks. It literally means "buried salmon" and the name refers to the traditional method of preparation for this food: fresh salmon was heavy salted and buried in dry sand to ferment and cure.
Provided by French Tart
Categories Lunch/Snacks
Time P2DT10m
Yield 4-6 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 11
Steps:
- Remove the bone from the salmon, leaving two triangular fillets with the skin intact.
- To make the curing mixture, mix together the Maldon Crystal Salt, sugar and peppercorns,juniper berries and the gin.
- Place the salmon, skin side down, on a board and place half of the curing mixture over the surface of each fillet, pressing it well into the flesh. Now cover each fillet with the chopped dill.
- Place one fillet on top of the other to make a sandwich with the dill in the centre and the skin on the outside. Wrap tightly in Clingfilm and place on a shallow dish or plate. Place a plate over the top and weight with a heavy tin. Put in the fridge for 24 - 48 hours turning the gravalax twice during the curing time.
- Unwrap the gravlax and slice thinly Serve with rye bread and a sauce made from equal quantities of mayonnaise and wholegrain mustard mixed with a little sugar and chopped dill.
Tips:
- Choose the Right Salmon: For the best results, use fresh, high-quality salmon. Look for a fish that is firm to the touch and has a vibrant color.
- Use the Right Salt: Use a coarse sea salt for curing the salmon. This will help to draw out the moisture and create a more flavorful fish.
- Cure the Salmon Properly: Follow the curing instructions carefully to ensure that the salmon is properly cured. The curing time will vary depending on the size and thickness of the salmon.
- Use Fresh Herbs and Spices: Fresh herbs and spices will add flavor and depth to the cured salmon. Use a variety of herbs and spices to create a unique flavor profile.
- Be Patient: Curing salmon takes time. Don't rush the process or you will end up with a less flavorful fish.
Conclusion:
Danish Gravlaks Lox is a delicious and versatile dish that can be enjoyed for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. With its rich flavor and delicate texture, it is sure to be a hit with your family and friends. So next time you are looking for a special dish to serve, try making Danish Gravlaks Lox. You won't be disappointed!
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