welcome to the April text school I'm
here of course with chef Cassie Byers
from home wine kitchen and we are in the
Collier and Thomson demonstration
kitchen and this month we're going to
show you a very classic kind of brunch
dish so it um obviously Easter is in
April and it's a time when a lot of
people gather around for brunches but
really cured salmon is something that
you can enjoy any time of year and
you're going to be really surprised how
easy this is to make at home all we're
doing is applying salt to fish that is
the base of this entire technique the
salt is going to pull all the moisture
out and it essentially dry the fish
you're like almost pickling it yeah it's
a form of pickling we add brown sugar to
this so that you get a little bit of
sweetness as well if you did just salt
it would get very harsh kind of acidic
tannic you know so the brown sugar
definitely mellows that out and it adds
a great color and it adds a great flavor
we're doing very very simple today we
have our side of salmon here you can do
really any size you want um I just
figure go big or go home let's do the
whole thing right um and we've got a
really simple picture of kosher salt and
light brown sugar okay so we're gonna
start with putting a layer of this on
the bottom so you really just kind of
squish all that down just squish all
that down it just needs a bed to lie on
alright so I'm going to put a light
layer of brown sugar down and then we're
gonna put our citrus real quick I'm
gonna add some peppercorns we're gonna
incorporate some citrus juice whatever
tinkering you do with the recipe make
sure that you incorporate some sort of
liquid to get the process going okay um
citrus is great but you could also use
white wine if you want to do something
that was really fennely you could use
like a pear dough or an absinthe you
just need salad Mahal doesn't speed up
or change the curing process alcohol
does speed up a little bit but you can
see we're not using a whole lot okay you
just need a little bit to get it going
so I also notice that you're not being
entirely precise but know this isn't a
precise recipe the recipe that I give
you is is merely a guideline press down
firmly you know really get that a salt
and sugar mixture adhered to the fish
we're gonna put a sheet pan on top okay
all right we're gonna press again and
then we're gonna put something heavy
I've got to my heaviest pots next to me
if you've got some canned goods whatever
it is you have as long as you've got
something heavy to weight it down it's
gonna push all that moisture out and
really help the send along a brick wall
did great okay cuz I'm thinking that
this is really tall for a home
refrigerator right so to keep it
something you can keep in your home
fridge something kind of low like a
brick might work I've used a dictionary
okay it's an intelligent fish yeah well
read whatever is heavy okay all right so
it's been two days two days have gone by
no longer than 72 hours that's right we
don't want to over cure it and we're
gonna reveal our salt-cured cm in it say
we do yes see there we are
now you'll see there's a lot of liquid
let's come out and that's exactly what
this whole process is about is getting
all of the moisture out of the fish
that's drying it that's curing it and
what you're left with is going to be you
know your typical grab box cool we're
gonna take them over to the sink and
rinse them up and see what we have be
rinsed it off and I have to say when you
picked it up the texture of it you could
tell that it was much more firm yeah you
know it's got less give to it you can
see the skin how it kind of wrinkles up
when you try to move it it's it's it's
dried out that's what we were looking
for is the salt took all the moisture
out and you can see like the skin just
so easily peels right off it was there a
technique to slicing it properly you
want to cut them on an angle and just
just that as possible so you need a
pretty sharp knife so I'm gonna give
this a try I mean you eat smoked salmon
or I eat smoked salmon really often the
idea that you can make this so easily at
home honestly it's kind of mind-boggling
because it's so it's a very expensive
product right and the recipe that we've
provided online and in the column is
very very simple and I definitely
encourage you to incorporate other dry
herbs and spices and seasonings into it
to get what you want that tastes so
fresh it has that it has a definite
saltiness to it and you can taste a
little bit of like a citrus kind of
lemony
flavor to it but that fresh kind of
salmon flavor comes right through it
sent in the textures perfect excellent
I'm totally making this thank you so
much thank you