Salmon - souse me gently again

In the second part of our salmon sousing project (see autumn 2010 issue for the first part) we present two more delicious recipes – beetroot, and honey/mustard.

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. The finished product is much like smoked salmon without the smoke, leaving the delectable texture and flavour of the natural 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. As with our autumn issue (2010) sousing article we have used a curing marinade made up of equal amounts of 50/50 unprocessed, medium grain salt and raw sugar and 48 hours of curing. In the manuka honey recipe we substituted the sugar for liquid honey.
Our fillets weighed an average 1.5kg and we cured them for two days (48 hours), under a weight before washing off the brine mixture for presentation.

Prep your fillet

Again we used Atlantic salmon, farmed in clean, green Tassie and now available through the Sealord brand. We like its low oil content (it also grills well and should appeal to those people who find very oily salmon too rich), but any salmon fillet works, whether it comes from land where they call fish ‘feesh’ or call it ‘fush’. 

Leave the skin on your salmon fillet and, unless it has been done beforehand (and it usually depends on where you bought it), 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. 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 skin side down 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 (another oblong platter in our case). We turned it over every 12 hours. It might be a nuisance finding a ‘weight’ the right shape but the compression certainly helps the curing process. The weight should be no more than a kilo heavy.
The cured fillet is rinsed thoroughly and patted dry. You’ll need a very sharp knife to slice the fillet on an angle so you end up with nice wide slice. 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 a 1-to-1.5-kilo salmon fillet with skin on

150g of natural quality salt (sea or mineral)
150g of raw sugar
10g crushed black or while (or combo) peppercorns
6 cloves
30g dill, coarsely chopped
60ml vodka or gin or brandy/cognac or bourbon

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.

Beetroot flavoured soused salmon fillet

To the basic marinade above add 200g of grated raw beetroot (a medium sized beetroot). The juice from the vegetable will make a more liquid marinade so make sure you wrap the fillet well in film before refrigeration. Chef Jeremy Schmid tells us it is easier to use dehydrated beetroot but we have never seen this for sale here and you would have to make your own.

Add the rind of one lemon (not the juice). Reduce the 15-g of crushed peppercorns to 10g and add 10g of coriander seeds and 5g of fennel seeds – crush lightly.

Manuka honey mustard soused salmon

Using the basic recipe replace the sugar with 100g of good Kiwi liquid honey, the rind (only) of one lemon, 60ml brandy, 75g Dijon mustard (smooth), 15g peppercorns, 15g mustard seeds and 5g dried dill (or 30g chopped fresh dill). Out of all our sousing recipes this one had a very lovely flavour – perhaps it was the honey?

Serving

The soused salmon fillet should be a deep pink colour liked smoked salmon. Make sure you wash all the marinade off the fillet. Slice the fillet off the skin.

      

Winter 2010

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