Salmon heaven - souse me gently

These salmon recipes leave the texture and taste of this beautiful fish as natural as you can get, short of eating it sashimi. And we use the delectable Atlantic salmon now available through the Sealord brand – a fish very different from the king salmon we have become so accustomed to in New Zealand.

Sousing (curing) salmon with a flavoured mixture of salt and sugar is a very old method of preserving fish and probably best known in this country as gravad lax (gravet laks). It is a method with many names including ‘lox’ in the US and is the same method used in the commercial fish processing industry to ‘dry’-cure salmon before it is cold-smoked.

We researched the world’s cured salmon recipes to bring you three recipes, based on the same curing marinade and technique. We use Atlantic salmon, farmed in the coastal waters of Tasmania and now imported to New Zealand by Sealord. All salmon works with our cures, especially the ubiquitous king salmon this country is now famous for in terms of aquaculture exports, but we were impressed by the comparative low fat and firm flesh of Sealord’s Atlantic salmon.

The marinade

The curing (sousing/pickling) marinade uses a mixture of sugar and salt spread over the raw salmon fillet (with skin left on), which draws moisture from the flesh and firms it up over time so that it becomes denser like the texture of smoked salmon.

Researching various recipes, we found the quantities of salt and sugar were all over the place – from more salt than sugar to more sugar than salt. 

The more salt used, the firmer the cure. Ideally, the texture of the finished soused salmon should be like smoked salmon without the smoke, but we also found that, in New Zealand at least, chefs and salmon lovers are divided between a light (soft) cure and a firm (but not leathery) cure. 

We went down the middle with a 50/50 ratio of salt and sugar and 48 hours of curing. It worked very well.

Many recipes fail to say exactly what sort of salt and sugar to use. The salt, either mineral or sea, has to be unprocessed. We used Italian sea salt that was medium-grained. We found a lot of recipes suggested coarse salt, but again, we took a middle path between coarse and fine and it worked.

The sugar is also best if it is as ‘natural’ as possible (avoid refined products) and we used raw NZ sugar. In another recipe for the winter issue of Foodstyle Review we used liquid honey.
We had a bit of fun with the flavourings in our three different marinade recipes. Standard issue are dill, cracked peppercorns (black or white), and a slog of an alcoholic drink, with vodka being the favourite, followed by brandy, whiskey, bourbon and ouzo.

The length of curing determines the firmness of the finished product. Our fillets weighed an average 1.5kg and we cured them for two days (48 hours) before washing off the brine mixture and the texture was perfect.

Prep your fillet

Leave the skin on your salmon fillet and, unless it has been done beforehand, you need to pull the pin-bones out – not the easiest of jobs but one that must be done. 

You must also trim the fat from the sides and top of the fillet. It did occur to us it might make for a more even curing if the fillet was trimmed into an oblong block and the generous trimmings used for another recipe.

We also used just one fillet side. If you were using the whole fish – both fillet sides – you need to double the ingredients and sandwich the plastered fillets together for curing. 

Spreading the mixture

After we smothered our fillet with the sousing mixture, we laid the fillet down skin side on a large sheet of cling film, wrapped it securely and placed it on an oblong platter and left it in the fridge to cure with a weight on top. We turned it over every 12 hours. It might be a nuisance finding a ‘weight’ the right shape but the compressing certainly helps the curing process. The weight should be no more than a kilo heavy.  

The cured fillet is rinsed thoroughly and patted dry. We did three recipes (the other two we will publish in the winter 2010 issue) and the first, and most basic one, has a dill flavour. Once the cured fillet was washed and dried we put a fresh layer of chopped dill on top, seasoned it with freshly-ground pepper and wrapped it up again and left it in the fridge for another 12 hours to concrete the dill flavour. 

You need a very sharp knife to slice the fillet on an angle so you end up with nice wide slice. In the picture you will see the fillet being sliced with the skin taken off – this was for photographic purposes – it is a lot easier to slice with the skin left on. 

Your soused salmon will keep (covered) in the fridge for up to a week. Like smoked salmon, it freezes perfectly – wrapped in film and slipped into a sealed plastic bag.

The basic marinade recipe

Use this as the basis of any salmon curing recipe
Covers 1-to-1.5-kilo salmon fillet with skin on

150 grams of natural quality salt (sea or mineral)
150 grams of raw sugar
10 grams crushed black or while (or combo) peppercorns
6 cloves
30 grams dill coarsely chopped
60 ml vodka or gin or choice of booze

The mixed ingredients will form a gravelly paste which is spread over the flesh side of the fillet. Wrap in clear film securely, place in fridge for 48 hours with a weight on top. Turn every 12 hours or so.

Serving your dill-soused salmon

Unwrap the fillet and wash the mixture off thoroughly. Pat dry. Coarsely chop 30 grams of fresh dill and spread on top of fillet. Season with freshly ground pepper. Wrap in cling film and put back into fridge for another 12 hours.

Using a very sharp long-bladed knife, slice the fillet (with skin left on) in long, even, slanted cuts, moving back from the head towards the tail. Cut off only what you need. The rest of the fillet can be kept in the fridge for a week or placed in the freezer for longer storage.
 
We presented our dill-soused salmon with blinis, salmon eggs and sour cream mixed with a tablespoon of horseradish (sauce or cream). The commercial blinis available at some supermarkets work very well. Below is a list of stuff to help you with presentation ideas.

Ingredients synonymous with cured salmon

Sour cream
Horseradish
Capers
Gherkins
Red onions finely chopped
Blinis
Toasted breads
Beetroot relish
Rocket and watercress
Avocado
Cucumber salad
Dill sauce
Mustard sauce
Fennel
Wasabi
Mustard mayo
Chilled vodka shots

Keep tuned – two more soused-salmon recipes in the winter issue of Foodstyle Review, one with honey and mustard and another flavoured with beetroot and brandy
 

      

Autumn 2010

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