welcome back today we're going to be
doing something entirely different does
it if not guns we're going to be making
some food and one of my favorite things
for breakfast is gravlax or lox cured
salmon and it's extraordinarily easy to
make it's a thousand percent cheaper
than anything you can buy in the store
and better tasting too so it's it's a
process that's only going to take a few
minutes and I'll show you how it's done
and we'll have full health edible cured
salmon in no time at all now you can
cure any fatty Coldwater fish in this
case I've got a beautiful piece of
farm-raised Atlantic salmon nice color
to it and everything but you can also
use steelhead trout you can use fresh
water so you can use race rainbow it's
very popular thing to use for instance
which is what steel it is and you can I
haven't tried it yet but this recipe
should work perfectly also on bluefish
or mackerel so let's begin first of all
I've got a rather irregular shape piece
of fish so one of the things I can do is
to square it off square this off right
here
cut this with this beautiful sharp dowel
strong knife which severed that no
problem whatsoever now I'm gonna reserve
that piece of fish that's gonna be
that's gonna be dinner tonight and I'll
also square off this piece right here
and this is not necessary but for two
reasons like they say I want to have
dinner tonight and nice piece of salmon
and that will just miss the curing
process a little easier so now that I've
got that now that I've got that I'll
take this over to the sink and make sure
I remove any
remaining scale so I I'll Pat it nice
and dry and remove any scales for my
cutting board here and now and this has
got to be a this should be a skin on
fish so don't let the fishmonger cut the
skin off for you now I'm gonna cut this
salmon directly into you'll see why very
shortly and I'm gonna take a 8 or 9 inch
glass and you can use you can use
aluminum that's alright I prefer a glass
I think that anytime you're using salt
glass the stainless steel is a far
better I think to use to prevent any
kind of oxidation whatsoever
now you're gonna use plain white sugar
you can use other kinds of sugar but
you're not going to have authentic locks
and gravlax that is you're going to have
something else brown sugar to use for
American cured salmon especially if it's
going to be smoked but in this case we
use plain white sugar and now we use
kosher salt and it should be coarse
kosher salt just just like you buy it
here and I've got here coarse ground
black pepper now you can use I typically
use fresh dill but I don't have any
fresh dill right now so I'm gonna use a
dill weed now not dill seed dill weed is
a this is chopped up dill and it's
dehydrated so it doesn't require too
much it's very it's very potent when
it's dehydrated probably about on the
order of 3 to 1 so we'll have that the
general proportion is 50/50 it's it's
half sugar and half salt you can go a
little bit heavier on the figure if you
would if you wish so we'll mix that up
in a bowl into a mixing bowl
lift it close your fault piece of
cardboard in there from the box I guess
and eat sugar and it's a black pepper
now I've got three tablespoons of black
pepper here you can you can use whatever
proportions are like I I can't we tend
to like it a little bit on the peppery
side and it doesn't make it hot by any
means but just gives it a nice a very
nice rich flavor so we're gonna add that
I've got a half a cup each of the salt
and a half a cup of sugar and three
tablespoons of black pepper now I'll mix
that up very thoroughly you can use a
whisk if you wish to really incorporate
all the ingredients you want to mix it
make sure it's mixed up thoroughly we're
not gonna mix the dough into that now on
the bottom of this on the bottom of this
glass dish we spread a layer of salt and
sugar mixture with the black pepper and
a generous generous layer so that you
cover the bottom of the dip on top of
that place your first layer one layer of
the salmon and you can if you wish you
can you can add a little bit of mixture
to the side of that and there's no
measurement associated with this
whatsoever because it's not gonna good
salt here if you happen or more sugary
if you if you happen to add more than
necessary it's gonna be washed off
afterwards and the fish itself will
resist any over-salting so it's kind of
an automatic process this is an ancient
process has been going on for thousands
of years now on top of that
we'll add a little bit of dill weed and
let's say just sprinkle it on so you
dust it very nicely with the dill just
like this and you can see how that is
it's not it's not an awful lot but it's
it's very easy to see and then we'll
take this piece of salmon here and if
you've got a thin side and a fat side
you can alternate them so that one lies
down on top of the other now I'm gonna
add just to make sure I have evenly
distributed I'm going to add a little
bit before I sandwich them together just
like that and sandwich them together and
we'll take more salt mixture lay it on
top cover it completely don't be afraid
of putting it on because that's vital to
having this delicious meal and add
somewhat guilt here we go
plastic wrap this curing process is all
done with just the salt and sugar a
different flavoring and it requires no
it requires no further processing you
don't have to do any smoking or anything
now it should be you know you'll see
sometimes people say put a brick on top
I'm gonna burst up putting a brick on
something in the refrigerator that might
fall off and break something like the
shelves in the refrigerator I like to
just take a fresh box or something like
chicken broth here because it had good
weight and that'll provide that'll
provide wait for it while it's sitting
in the refrigerator now after 12 hours
the face will be flipped so I'll be back
in 12 hours and we'll show you what took
place okay so it's been 12 hours we're
gonna flip it over you can see what's
happening to the fishes
exuding it's um its moisture and it's
gathering in the bottom of the pan
nothing on the plastic so all we need to
do it just simply take a good size
spatula and give it a give it a turn and
it's already starting to change its
texture it's getting it's getting firm
right now very hard words before was a
it was very very soft so that's that's
um basically where we're getting that
moisture out so that it cures it and
we'll do this every 12 hours for
basically you can you can get away with
24 hours we'll do the lion's share of
the curing but I personally prefer to do
it for three and a half to four and a
half days or so that way there you get a
nice firm texture that's nice to slice
and everything that's it we'll wrap it
back up put it back in the fridge and
I'll keep turning it on and and when
we're all done we'll show you the
finished product and in about three and
a half days
so okay it's been four and a half days
since we began this uncover it now when
I turned it twice a day since I started
and this is what we've got we've got it
probably it was certainly done by the
second day but this was a very very
thick piece of salmon and as you can see
the color has changed considerably the
texture of the skin is now quite
different than it was before that's
going to be removed what we've got in
the pan now is just a liquid that's
natural liquid from the salmon and the
herbs and the salt and pepper and sugar
and dill the death row got to be
discarded and we're gonna wash this off
over to think
and just under gentle running water why
you can get me scrub off the surface
vault and also to it from if it didn't
get all the if you didn't get all the
pin bones out you can you can feel for
those right now
and it's a fine dinner you can take time
you and those fire look like them out
here making that we've done ahead of
time this goal we began so that that's
perfect a little bit of black pepper
remaining it's important to get that
perfect ball box if you really don't
want to help that and that granular you
know Pat these salmon fully nice and dry
with a clean lint-free towel
I prefer that actually over paper towel
paper towel tends to get stuck sometimes
any a leave little piece of paper on it
so this is a little easier to use it for
me and that does it now we'll show you
how we slice some of these off now what
I'm gonna be carving it with his this
Dell strong gladiator series knife this
is a really beautiful knife to use its
razor-sharp edge keeps it safe for a
long long time it takes very very little
maintenance so I'm just gonna use the
blade at a very acute angle and we're
going to be cutting it actually from the
top of that from the top of that salmon
we're gonna be cutting it into butter
less than a 20 degree angle and you can
see this knife just glides along
the color and the texture is actually
beautiful I'll cut off a few and you
know you can serve this the traditional
way with a mustard with a mustard sauce
or I just with some capers and maybe put
her on some baguettes with just wood
butter
buttered baguettes and put a slice of
this on I learned to eat that when we're
visiting our friends in Norway it's a
wonderful meal very easy to prepare it
just takes a little bit of patience for
a few days while it's curing commences
and finishes up and that's it and as far
as that as far as that skin goes now I
can just simply take this knife run
along
and that's how easy that carving-knife
remove skin there you go that's it thank
you for watching don't forget to
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god bless