Salmon brined and ready to cure
Making Gravlax has been a long time coming. Since December, I’ve been fixating on the idea of having homemade lox, homemade bagels, and homemade cream cheese. As of the past couple weeks, the second and third of those wishes have been on their way to coming true.
Not only did I make my own batch of sourdough leavened Hampshire Farms Spelt Flour bagels (which were dense, delicious, and not a whole lot like “true” Jewish Bagels), but I’ve also been inching toward my goal of learning to make cream cheese. So far, the technique that has worked best for me follows:
8 cups whole unhomogenized cow milk
1 cup cultured buttermilk
5 drops liquid vegetable rennet
Warm the milk and buttermilk to 90 degrees. swirl 1 Tbs water together with 5 drops of rennet, add the the warmed milk, stir briefly. Cover pot and let sit for 6-8 hours, until milk has curdled together in the center of the pot and is surrounded by whey. The more rennet you add and the longer you let it ferment the drier the cream cheese will be. Pour the curds into a strainer lined with cheesecloth and let drain 24 hours in the fridge. When it’s reached desired consistency, add salt and whatever other seasonings and blend with an immersion blender.
It’s also important to note that while my bagels were OK, a person hoping to start a downtown bagel shop recently wandered into my life and where my hearty bagels taste a bit like health food, his are doughy, crispy on the outside, and superbly flavored. Can’t WAIT to see what he does with these beauties.
So all of these accomplishments/excitements converged to impel me back toward my goal of making lox. Traditional lox (at least, in my understanding) are salt cured and smoked… a bit of an endeavor. Gravlax, another norwegian curing technique, involve no smoking and a salty sweet brine. Needless to say, this intrigued me.
I found a recipe calling for a Juniper and Maple Syrup brine, and after discovering a cache of “ornamental” juniper bushes lining a parking lot near MGM GRAND casino (on grand river just NW of downtown), I knew I had to get my hands on some salmon and make it happen.
Please note that wandering into whole foods looking for sustainably fished salmon was a challenge– not because there is a dearth of options, but because living on the great lakes means there is an abundance of local fish, salmon not amongst them, and at least a few metro detroit fishmongers. BUT, while my ultimate goal is to learn to brine Michigan Lake fish, I wanted to start with salmon, and I wanted my salmon to be happy. Coupled with the fact that I’m only in the burbs on sundays and Superior Fish in royal oak wasn’t open on sunday– I found myself pondering the positives and negatives of gill vs. troll netting in the shiny biomes of the whole foods seafood section. I can honestly say by the time I pointed and said “I want that one,” all that was driving my decision was the price tag.
But my guilt has little to do with why you’re reading this post, so back to the good stuff:
Crushing 1 tsp Juniper Berries harvested from the MGM Grand parking lot
Grinding the Juniper Berries and 2 Tbs Sea Salt
Mixing salt and juniper with 2 Tbs Grade C Maple SYRUP:)
Stirring.
Spreading.
After mixing the brine, all that was left to do was spreading the mix over the 1.5 lbs of rinsed and patted dry filets. The recipe book I was using Full Moon Feast says to wrap and weight the fish, allowing 48 hours of pressing in the fridge for 1 inch thick filets and 72 hrs in the fridge for 2 inch thick filets. Because I’m an extremist, I’m pressing my 1 inch thick filets for 3 days. yum.
SO now my gravlax are sitting in a pan in my fridge with a glass jug full of water pressing it down. Supposedly, tomorrow afternoon (the 3 day mark) the skin will be very red and I’ll clean the brine from the fish’s surface and gleefully enjoy it– on a bagel. With cream cheese, red onion, and capers.
Alternatively, I may try to recreate the wildly successful lox pizza my neighbors made during the snow day 2 weeks ago. Either way, a feast is forthcoming!