Best 6 Easy Gravlax Recipes

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Gravlax is a cured salmon dish that originated in the Nordic countries. It is typically made with fresh salmon that is cured with a mixture of salt, sugar, and dill. The curing process can take anywhere from 24 hours to several days, depending on the desired flavor. Gravlax is a versatile dish that can be served as an appetizer, main course, or snack. It can be sliced thinly and served on bread or crackers, or it can be used as a topping for salads or pasta dishes. There are many different ways to make gravlax, and each recipe has its own unique flavor. Some popular variations include using different types of fish, such as trout or char, or adding additional ingredients to the cure, such as citrus zest or juniper berries. No matter how it is made, gravlax is a delicious and easy-to-make dish that is sure to impress your guests.

This article provides three different recipes for gravlax:

* **Classic Gravlax:** This recipe is a traditional Swedish gravlax recipe that uses fresh salmon, salt, sugar, and dill.
* **Citrus Gravlax:** This recipe adds citrus zest to the cure, giving the gravlax a bright and tangy flavor.
* **Herb Gravlax:** This recipe uses a variety of herbs, including rosemary, thyme, and sage, to create a flavorful and aromatic gravlax.

Each recipe includes step-by-step instructions and photos to help you make perfect gravlax at home.

Here are our top 6 tried and tested recipes!

EASY GRAVLAX



Easy Gravlax image

We seasoned the gravlax with coriander and white peppercorns, but you may use juniper berries, caraway seeds, or grated lemon peel. Serve with salmon roe, snipped chives, and a dollop of creme fraiche atop our Curry Waffles.

Provided by Martha Stewart

Categories     Food & Cooking     Appetizers

Yield Serves 4 to 6

Number Of Ingredients 7

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup coarse salt
1 tablespoon whole white peppercorns, crushed
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed
2 one-pound center-cut salmon fillets, skin on
2 ounces fresh dill, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup aquavit or vodka

Steps:

  • Combine the sugar, salt, peppercorns, and coriander seeds in a small bowl. Set aside. Place the salmon fillets on a parchment-lined work surface, and remove any remaining bones.
  • Cover the flesh side of each with the spice mixture, gently rubbing it onto the flesh.
  • Spread the dill on top of the spices; pour the aquavit or vodka over the dill.
  • Place one fillet on top of the other, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.
  • Place the wrapped fillets in a glass or enamel pan. Place a heavy object, such as a canned good, in a smaller pan, and place on top of the fish. Transfer both pans to the refrigerator, and chill for 12 hours. Remove the fish from the pan; pour off the liquid that has accumulated in the pan and discard. Turn the fish over, and place the weighted pan back on top of the fish. Continue to refrigerate for 3 more days, turning the fish over every 12 hours.
  • After 3 days, remove and discard the plastic wrap. Scrape the dill and spices from the surface of both fillets. To serve, slice each fillet on the diagonal, as thinly as possible. Wrap the remaining gravlax in plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

GRAVADLAX



Gravadlax image

Cure your own salmon, Scandinavian-style, with dill, juniper, and lemon and serve with a mustard sauce

Provided by Barney Desmazery

Time P2D

Number Of Ingredients 12

2 x 500g pieces skin-on organic salmon fillet, both cut from the centre of the fish. Ask your fishmonger to pin-bone it for you
75g flaky sea salt
75g golden caster sugar
1 tsp black peppercorn, roughly crushed
zest of 1 lemon
8 juniper berries, crushed (optional)
small bunch (about 20g) dill, roughly chopped
2 tbsp gin (optional)
pumpernickel sauce, to serve
small bunch (about 20g) dill, roughly chopped
4 tbsp each Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, honey and sunflower oil
2 tbsp muscovado sugar

Steps:

  • Pat the salmon dry with kitchen paper and run your hands over the flesh to see if there are any stray small bones - if there are, use a pair of tweezers to pull them out. Set the salmon fillets aside.
  • Tip the salt, sugar, peppercorns, lemon zest, juniper and dill into a food processor and blitz until you have a bright green, wet salt mixture or 'cure'. Unravel some cling film but keep it attached to the roll. Lay the first fillet of salmon skin-side down and then pack the cure over the flesh. Drizzle with gin, if using and top with the 2nd fillet, flesh-side down. Roll the sandwiched fillets tightly in cling film to create a package.
  • Place the fish in a shallow baking dish or shallow-sided tray and lay another tray on top. Weigh the tray down with a couple of tins or bottles and place in the fridge for at least 48 hrs or up to 4 days, turning the fish over every 12 hours or so. The longer you leave it, the more cured it will become.
  • To make the sauce, tip all the sauce ingredients into a blender. Blitz until you have a thickened dressing.
  • To serve, unwrap the fish and brush off the marinade with kitchen paper. Rinse it if you like. You can slice the fish classically into long thin slices, leaving the skin behind, or remove the skin it and slice it straight down. Serve the sliced fish on a large platter or individual plates with pumpernickel bread, dill and mustard sauce.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 288 calories, Fat 15.9 grams fat, SaturatedFat 2.5 grams saturated fat, Carbohydrate 15.2 grams carbohydrates, Sugar 15.2 grams sugar, Fiber 0.1 grams fiber, Protein 20.8 grams protein, Sodium 4.3 milligram of sodium

GRAVLAX



Gravlax image

Provided by Food Network

Categories     appetizer

Time P2DT20m

Number Of Ingredients 12

1/3 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar
3 to 4 teaspoons crushed white peppercorns
3 to 4 pounds salmon fillet, preferably the middle cut, skin on
Lots of fresh dill
Hovmastarsas, sweet dill and mustard sauce, recipe follows
6 tablespoons Swedish style mustard (or 3 tablespoons American mustard and 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard)
4 tablespoons sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3/4 cup pure vegetable oil
Salt and white pepper
Plenty of chopped dill

Steps:

  • Mix salt, sugar and pepper. Rub the fish with the mixture. Add dill. Wrap in foil and put in a dish. Refrigerate for 36 to 48 hours, with a light weight on top of the fish. Turn the salmon several times.
  • Before serving, scrape off the dill and seasoning and cut into thin slices on the diagonal.
  • Serve with Hovmastarsas, sweet dill and mustard sauce.
  • Whisk together mustard, sugar and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the oil in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Add the chopped dill. Store in refrigerator.

HOMEMADE GRAVLAX



Homemade Gravlax image

Provided by Geoffrey Zakarian

Time P2DT15m

Yield 16 to 8 servings

Number Of Ingredients 6

1 cup finely minced fresh dill
6 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup vodka
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 limes, zested
1 side salmon (approximately 3 pounds), skin on, pin bones removed

Steps:

  • Combine the dill, sugar, vodka, salt and lime zest in a small bowl and stir until well mixed.
  • Spread the mixture over the salmon flesh. Cut the side of salmon in half crosswise. Fold each piece in half so the flesh is touching and the marinade is on the interior. Wrap the pieces tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 days.
  • Slice the salmon thinly on a bias and serve.

GRAVLAX



Gravlax image

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

1 side clean, fresh and fat Alaskan king salmon, skin on, pin bones removed, neatly trimmed of all undesirable bits of fat and tissue (about 3 to 3 1/2 pounds total), or 1 fat and gorgeous 2 1/2-pound fillet cut from the widest part of the body
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup finely ground black pepper
2 bunches dill (about 4 ounces each), clean and dry, left intact (no need to pick fronds from stem), coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), left at room temperature for an hour (not hard from the fridge yet not so warm as to be greasy)
1 bunch dill (about 4 ounces), clean and dry, fronds removed from stems, fronds finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1 medium shallot, peeled and finely minced
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Soft dark pumpernickel sandwich bread

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.

SIMPLE, HOMEMADE SALMON GRAVLAX



Simple, Homemade Salmon Gravlax image

Gravlax, or Scandinavian-style cold-cured salmon, is easy to make with this recipe. It's delicious on crackers or with cream cheese on a bagel.

Provided by Molly Watson

Categories     Appetizer     Breakfast     Brunch

Time P1DT30m

Yield 24

Number Of Ingredients 6

2 salmon fillets (2 to 3 pounds each, skin on)
1/4 cup aquavit (or vodka)
1/3 cup fine sea salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon black pepper
Optional: 1/4 cup chopped dill

Steps:

  • Gather the ingredients.
  • Rinse the salmon fillets and pat them dry thoroughly.
  • Use tweezers or pliers to pull out any pin bones, if necessary.
  • Drizzle the aquavit or vodka evenly over the flesh of each fillet.
  • In a small bowl, combine the salt, sugar, and pepper.
  • Divide the mixture into 3 even piles within the bowl.
  • Divide one of the thirds of curing mix in half and place on a rimmed baking sheet or baking pan in the shape of one of the fillets.
  • Lay a fillet skin-side down on the mixture. Spread a third of the curing mixture on the flesh of that fillet.
  • Spread the remaining third of the curing mixture on the flesh side of the other fillet. Sprinkle the dill, if using, over both fillets.
  • Lay the second fillet flesh to flesh on the first fillet. Sprinkle the remaining curing mixture over the skin of the top fillet.
  • Cover the fillets and baking sheet or pan with foil or plastic wrap. Place a cutting board or second baking sheet on top of the covered fish and top it with something heavy (cans, pots, or pans) to weigh the fish down. Place it all in the fridge and let chill for about 12 hours or overnight.
  • Remove from the fridge, unwrap, and discard the accumulated liquid in the pan. Turn over the fillets so the bottom one is on top.
  • Cover the pan, weigh down the fish again, and return to the refrigerator. Let chill another 12 hours.
  • The fish is now cured and ready to serve, but it will continue to benefit from another 12 to 24 hours of being weighed down and chilled, so feel free to repeat these steps a second time around.
  • When ready to eat, pat dry, and thinly slice the gravlax against the grain using a very sharp knife.
  • Serve and enjoy.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 250 kcal, Carbohydrate 3 g, Cholesterol 71 mg, Fiber 0 g, Protein 25 g, SaturatedFat 3 g, Sodium 1625 mg, Sugar 3 g, Fat 14 g, ServingSize 1 to 2 pounds (24 servings), UnsaturatedFat 0 g

Tips:

  • Choose the Right Salmon: Select a high-quality, sushi-grade salmon fillet that is fresh and firm.
  • Properly Cure the Salmon: Ensure the salmon is fully covered in the curing mixture and refrigerate it for the recommended time. This allows the flavors to penetrate and develop.
  • Use Fresh Herbs and Spices: Fresh herbs and spices, such as dill, lemon zest, and juniper berries, enhance the flavor of the gravlax. Use high-quality ingredients for the best taste.
  • Control the Saltiness: Adjust the amount of salt in the curing mixture according to your preference. If you prefer less salty gravlax, reduce the quantity of salt.
  • Chill Thoroughly: After curing, chill the gravlax in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before slicing and serving. This allows the flavors to meld and develop further.
  • Slice Thinly: When slicing the gravlax, use a sharp knife to ensure clean, even slices. Thinly sliced gravlax is more delicate and flavorful.

Conclusion:

Gravlax is a delicious and versatile dish that can be enjoyed as an appetizer, main course, or snack. With a few simple ingredients and some patience, you can easily make your own gravlax at home. Experiment with different herbs, spices, and curing times to create a unique and flavorful gravlax that suits your taste preferences. Serve it with your favorite accompaniments, such as blinis, crackers, or rye bread, and enjoy the Nordic culinary delight!

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