Maybe you don’t know this, but since I was a teenager I have always loved Scandinavia. I love the long and bright summer nights and the short and cold winter days. I love snow. I love the beautiful Norwegian fjords and the Finnish lakes. I love the little and colourful Danish villages… Well, I guess you get my point. I also like Scandinavian food and gravlax is one of the dishes I like the most. I have made it a few times in the past but I hadn’t noted the recipe down. Luckily I managed to find a good recipe on the internet and I was able to make it at home again. The keys for a good gravlax are obviously a good quality salmon fillet and lots of patience, as it takes a few days for the salmon to “become” gravlax. Maybe not everyone knows that “gravlax” was made by fishermen, who salted the salmon and lightly fermented it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line. The word gravlax comes from the Scandinavian word grav, which literally means “grave” (in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch), and lax (or laks), which means “salmon”, thus gravlax means “buried salmon” (Wiki). I like to serve it with my home-made whole-wheat sandwich bread and the typical sweet dill mustard sauce I used to eat it with in Scandinavia. It is delicious and if you eat it with your eyes closed, you will feel like you are sitting on the shore of a fjord!! Enjoy!
Gravlax with Sweet Dill Mustard Sauce
A tutorial on how to make Gravlax at home and the recipe for the perfect sauce to eat it with Sweet Dill Mustard Sauce!
Ingredients
Gravlax
- 800 gms – 1.7 pounds salmon fillet
- 45 gms – 3 tbsp white sugar
- 15 gms – tbsp sea salt
- 1 big bunch of fresh dill
Sweet Dill Mustard Sauce (makes 1 ½ cups)
- 6 tbsp honey mustard
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp plain or white wine vinegar
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil I use sunflower
- ½ cup fresh dill finely chopped
Instructions
Gravlax.
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Cut the fillet precisely in half and place it on top of some cling wrap. Mix the sugar and salt together in a small bowl.
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Spread the sugar and salt mixture on the top of the 2 halves of the salmon fillet. Put more where the salmon is thick and a little less where the salmon is thin as the mixture will get absorbed faster in the thinner parts.
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Cover 1 of the halves with the bunch of dill and then place the other half of the salmon on the top, like a sandwich. Do this carefully so that the salt and sugar do not fall out.
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Tightly wrap the salmon with the cling wrap. Once wrapped, re-wrap it a couple of times and make sure the salmon fillets are touching each other at all points, with no air space.
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Put it on a tray and transfer it to the fridge to cure. You need to flip it over a couple of times a day. The original recipe suggested to let it cure for 48 hours before serving it. I tried it after 48 hours and I thought it tasted a but too “raw” for my liking, so I kept it for another 24 hours and it was perfect. It’s up to you.
Sweet Dill Mustard Sauce.
To serve.
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Serve the sliced gravlax on some whole-wheat sandwich bread with red onion rings and the sweet dill mustard sauce.
What a great post and recipe is just fantastic too! Pictures making my mouth water Manu! Well done!
I love gravalax too! I made it a couple of time last winter around X-mas and I am planning to re-do it this winter. It is so good! And so much cheaper than buying it pre-made!
Thank you for ‘Mother’s milk’! The most beautiful dish on earth [OK: I am prejudiced!!] Oh, how can one live on this earth without gravlax?!!!! Both prep and ‘sauce’ beautifully presented – why not? . . . . :D!
I love gravalax so this is a perfect recipe for me. I lived in Italy for 9 years and travelled a lot in that time and always meant to get to Scandinavia but never did. One day I will get there.
Another thing we share: a love for Scandinavia! I once saw Nigella making gravlax and made a mental note to try it but then forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me.