Gravlaks with Sweet Mustard Sauce

Almost FOUR (four?! four. FOUR?) years since I first started my blog, and this is my 200th post. In someways, I consider this to be a huge solo-dance-party-worthy experience, but on the other side of the fence, it's a bit low. Just glance over to my side bar - the number of recipes per year has been slowing decreasing (67, 72, 41,18…) but I consider to be myself to be a better cook.

Now when I approach my kitchen, it's a little more Iron Chef and a lot less exact. There will never be a day in which I stop referencing cookbooks or other food blogs, but now I'm much more comfortable approaching a spread of ingredients with only myself as inspiration. Ingredients are more ingrained and I know how nicely they play with their food friends. Tasting starts before I even start chopping the first onion. But how does this translate over to a food blog?

For me, it doesn't. I take that back, it only kind of does, but it means less posts with more trust. Now when I post something, it's a recipe I have probably tried once or twice. The first time was to inhale and analyze the food without pressure of photography. Second is perfecting. Third is for the blog. Or in the case of this recipe, sometimes I rework a classic and put it on up.

Back when Andy and I were back in Seattle, we made use of the first few catches of a salmon run but curing King Salmon with Aquavit. In my opinion, there is no better way to experience Pacific salmon then cured and on a slice of hearty rye bread. Cut to six months later, and while we are away from my beloved Pacific ocean, it's just as easy to find fresh and sustainable salmon on the Third Coast in Wisconsin. 

The basics of curing are simple and similar to my last recipe, but this time we cut out the Auqavit and upped the amount of sugar and salt. As far as meat goes, I recommend approaching the fish monger of your local food coop and having him select, cut and remove the bones of the best possible cut of fish.

Gravlaks with Sweet Mustard Sauce

From the Kitchen of Light 

Ingredients:

• Two 3-point salmon fillets, skin on, any pinbones removed
• ⅓ cup salt
• ⅔ cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons fine chopped fresh dill
• 1 teaspoon dill seeds
• Sweet Mustard Sauce (recipe below)

Directions:

1. Rinse fillets in cold water and pat them dry with paper towels. Combine the salt and sugar, and rub the flesh side down in a deep dish just big enough to hold the fillets (we used a large glass roasting pan).
2. Scatter the pepper, fresh dil, and dill seeds over it. Place the other fillet skin-side-up on top. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place a heavy weight (such as a cast iron skillet like we did) on top of the fish.
3. Refrigerate for 3 to 4 days, turning the fish every 12 hours and basting it with the brine that accumulates in the dish.
4. Once cured, gently wipe the cure off the top of the fillets. Use a long, narrow, flexible, sharp knife to remove the skin from each fillet. With the salmon skin side down, grab the tail end, pinching it with your thumb and fingers. If the skin is slippery, use a paper towel to grip it. Use the knife to slice between the skin and flesh. Keep the knife at an angle, pointed down towards the skin, and use a rocking motion to slice under the length of the fillet and remove the skin.
5. Once the skin is removed, flip the fillet over and trim off any pieces of skin still left on the fish. After the skin is removed from both fillets, store them in the fridge, well wrapped, where they will keep for at least a week.
6. To serve, slice the salmon as thinly as possible by using a sharp knife to shave off pieces, cutting towards the tail end. Wrap any unused salmon and return it to the fridge. Traditionally, gravlax is served with mustard-dill sauce and rye bread. It’s also delicious just sneakily eaten plain, too! Just don't tell Andy I do that….

Sweet Mustard Sauce

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons sweet grainy mustard, or to taste
• 2 to 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
• 1 to 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

Directions:

1. Combine the sweet mustard and 2 tablespoons of the Dijon mustard in a medium bowl. Add the sugar and 1 tablespoon of the vinegar. Gradually add the oil, whisking constantly. 
2. Adjust the flavors as necessary. 
3. The sauce should be neither overly sweet nor overly acidic. Add a little water if the sauce gets too thick. Stir in the chopped dill. It will keep, refrigerated, for 2 to 3 weeks.

Spicy Gravlax with Aquavit

Did I tell you my big news? It's a bit colder, but also kinda steamy, with beer and brats mixed in. You guessed it yet?

If you found yourself thinking "Madison, Wisconsin," you would be correct! If you thought "crazy cool camping trip in the North Cascades," you would be, sadly, quite awrong. As many of you may know, I hail from Michigan and my a-little-bit-less-than-quarter-life crisis involved me moving out to Seattle on a relative whim. I only visited the city once before moving here but the mountains, water and 50 to 75 degree no-humidity days did me in. I was hooked. I love Seattle more than any city I have ever lived in, made some life-long friends and know how successfully navigate from Capitol Hill to Queen Anne during rush hour without hitting a lick of traffic.

I'll miss Seattle and see myself coming back here a few times a year, but I love adventures and Madison is a new one. What's crazier is that I have never been to Madison. I am actually moving to a city I have never seen. With a guy. If you thought I went bonkers before you don't know what's coming. "A" accepted a job as a hydrogeologist with the USGS, my internship at Edelman ended and the timing stars aligned. 

So friends, readers, anyone in the Universe… as I have never been to Madison, I also don't know anyone there. If you want to meet up for coffee (Seattle got me hooked), just know this, I make a mean cookie. Who wants to hang out? I'll be the one with the curly red hair and box of friendship cookies. And maybe some of that salmon below.

But you don't want to hear about me pleading for a friend date and my 2,000 mile move back to the Midwest. You came here for the food, dangit! I think I have mentioned before that "A" is half Swedish (half German), translating to we eat lots of berries, pancakes and fish. But we wanted to dive into Swedish food a bit further and make our own gravlax, i.e. Swedish cured salmon. 

Pretty much since the dawn of dating him, he has told me about the little-used bottle of Aquavit in his freezer and an urge to cure his own salmon. That's basically how he wooed me. The gravlax itself is quite easy to put together with the most time consuming segment being mixing the spices together… and I guess that whole "curing" part too. To make things bit easier, when I went to the market to buy salmon, I told the fish monger exactly what I was planning on doing and he gave me two one-pound sections that fit together. If you don't have access to a monger, I recommend buying two equally sized tail cuts (no bones!) that fit nicely together.

I'll just leave with with the recipe as I now have peanut butter all over my keyboard (lunch fail) and have a bit of scrubbing to do.

Spicy Gravlax with Aquavit

Adapted from Kitchen of Light by Andreas Viestad

Ingredients:

• 2 one-pound salmon fillets, skin-on
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• 2 teaspoons aniseed
• 5 juniper berries (India Tree makes some dried juniper berries that should be available at most markets)
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons Aquavit

Directions:

1. Rinse the fillets in cold water and pat them dry with paper towels. Crush the caraway seeds, aniseed, juniper berries, red pepper flakes and black peppercorns using a mortar and pestle. Or place the spices on a cutting board or other hard surface and crush them with the underside of a heavy skillet. Combine with the salt, sugar, and dill.
2. Place one of the fillets skin side down in a deep dish just big enough to hold the fillets. Rub the fillet with half the spice and dill mixture. Rub the other fillet with the mixture and place it skin side up on top of the first. 
3. Pour the aquavit on top, cover the dish with plastic wrap, and place a heavy weight, such as two heavy plates or a saucepan, on top of the fish. Refrigerate for three to four days, turning the fish every 12 hours and basting it with the brine that accumulates in the dish.
4. To serve, dust off some of the spices and slice the fish into thin slices with a sharp thin knife. The flesh from the tail will be leaner than the flesh from the belly. Serve with mustard sauce and dark rye bread, for open-faced sandwiches - see pictures for picnicking proof!