Gravlax Smoked Salmon Food

GRAVLAX

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.

SMOKED SALMON TARTINES WITH GRAVLAX SAUCE

Steps:

• Place the toasted bread on a cutting board and overlap slices of avocado on each piece of bread, using a quarter to half an avocado for each, depending on the size of the avocado and the bread. Sprinkle the avocado with lemon juice, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place one large slice of salmon on top, ribboning it to fit. Drizzle with a tablespoon of the sauce.
• Garnish with some red onion, sprinkle with the dill fronds, salt and pepper, and serve with extra sauce on the side.
• Whisk together the Dijon mustard, honey mustard, whole-grain mustard, ground mustard, sugar and vinegar in a medium bowl. Combine the olive and grapeseed oils in a small measuring cup. Slowly add the oil mixture to the mustard mixture, whisking constantly, until emulsified. Stir in the dill and salt.

GRAVLAX (SMOKED SALMON)

Steps:

• Spread cure all over both pieces of salmon and wrap them in heavy-duty aluminum with the flesh sides together, skin on the outside.
• Put on a large plate and then place a heavy weight on top.
• Put in refrigerator for 2 days, turning once or twice per day.
• Scrape off excess rub.
• Smoke at 200F for 45 minutes.
• Serve salmon cold with Mustard sauce.
• Mustard Sauce:.
• Slowly, one at a time in the order listed, blend ingredients in a food processor.