1 Ingredients

Here is a recipe for a lovely light salad for those soon to arrive long summer evenings, it is also perfect for entertaining.

Lemon & Dill Cured Salmon Gravlax

Serves 10

Preparation time 20 mins

Cooking time 72 hours

Ingredients

  • 1/2 side of salmon, skinned and pin boned
  • 2 Lemons (zest only)
  • Half a bunch of fresh dill
  • 600g Table salt
  • 600g Caster sugar

Method:

  1. Trim any excess fat from edges of salmon and set aside.
  2. Weigh out your sugar and salt and mix together.
  3. Finely chop dill and add to the salt mix, with the zest of 2 lemons.
  4. Thoroughly mix all ingredients together.
  5. In a container big enough to fit your salmon into, spread a layer of the marinade over the bottom about 1/2 an inch thick.
  6. Lay the salmon onto the salt mix and gently press down.
  7. Pour the rest of the salt mix over the salmon, ensuring it is completely covered around all edges.
  8. Cover in cling film and place into the fridge for 72 hours.
  9. After a few days, all the water will have been drawn out of the salmon and it will essentially “be cooked” and ready to be finely sliced.
  10. We serve it with watercress, finely diced boiled new potatoes, capers and brown shrimp with a lemon vinaigrette.

A nice variation of this is to mix a pureed beetroot into the salt and sugar mix to give the salmon an awesome deep purple ring.

In season this month:

Fruits & Nuts
Forced Rhubarb

Vegetables & Herbs
Cabbages, Cauliflower, Morel Mushrooms, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Spring Greens, Lettuce, Radishes, Sea Kale, Sorrel, Watercress

Meat & Game
Lamb, Wood Pigeon

Fish & Shellfish
Brown & Cock Crab, Pollack, Wild Samon, Sea Trout

Going out of season
Cockles, Oysters, Venison, Wild Garlic, Winkles

Suzanne is a professional chef, wife and mother who has lived in south East London all her life.

www.suzannejames.co.uk

You can email Suzanne with any comments or questions at info@suzannejames.co.uk

This article first appeared in the April 2016 issue of SE22 magazine