Gravlox

[Doug]

I posted this on a thread where a guy caught a monster brookie, but I guess I should also post it here in the recipes section.

This exquisite appetizer is at least as good as smoked salmon, and is fairly easy to make.

Ingredients:

1 salmon, steelhead, brown or brook trout about 3 lb

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup coarse salt

2 tbsp whole white pepper, crushed

1 tbsp dill weed

4-6 tbsp cognac (NOT counting what the cook drinks)

Fillet the fish, leaving the skin on but rib bones removed. Place one fillet, skin down, in a long dish. Mix together the sugar, salt and pepper. Sprinkle and rub the fillet (flesh side) with half the seasonings, then with all of the dill. Sprinkle the other fillet (flesh side) with some of the seasonongs, and pour the rest of the seasonings into the dish. Place the second fillet, skin side up, on top of the first. Pour the cognac over the fish, having first ensured that it is of good quality. Cover the fish with foil, then place a weighted board on top of the fish. (A small cutting board works well.) Then put a good heavy weight, for example a couple bricks in a plastic bag or tin foil on top of the board. Place the whole weighted affair in the refrigereator, and cure for 48 to 72 hours, turning and basting every twelve hours or so. When the fish is cured, rinse off the spices and pat dry. Cut thin slices of the gravlox off the skin (as in moist smoked salmon) and serve on crackers with capers.

This is a Scandinavian dish, Nowegian I think BUT I forget, and is just delicious. It is not in the recipe, but I sometimes do NOTrinse off the spices at the end, and thereby have a "spicier"/saltier product. It's all good...........

ENJOY!

Doug