10/02 Home Cured Salmon

I was gonna wax poetic about how awesome curing foods is, but if you're reading this you probably already know this. If not, this post should convince you. I've been eyeing a gravlax recipe from Rick Stein's Complete Seafood cookbook ever since I bought it a couple years ago. I highly recommend this book for anyone who really loves seafood btw. Gravlax is a Scandinavian dish consisting of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill. This is not quite as refined as smoked salmon, but it's pretty damn good nonetheless - maybe a bit saltier. So what exactly is involved in making this? Well actually it's remarkably simple. Take your salmon (in this case wild pacific coho) and cover it in coarse sea salt, sugar and dill. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 48 hours, flipping it every 12 hours. That's it. Seriously. It's dead easy. When you're done rinse off all the salt, slice and enjoy. This will keep in the fridge for a week, maybe longer.

So thats all nice and well, but what are you gonna do with a pound of cured salmon now? Well here's a simple idea that brings me back to my childhood. Take some tagliatelle - in this case the spinach varietal - add in some of that salmon, some creme fraiche (ok, lots of creme fraiche) and chives. Again, this is dead easy and yet so damn good. Over the winter I hope to explore this wonderful world of cured foods further, so stay tuned and try it out for yourself!