Gravlax with Hovmästarsås Sauce

Subbing for a fellow culinary teacher (I'm on a 1-year leave from my regular position) I showed (and watched with multiple classes) a video demonstration of a chef making gravlax. I knew I had salmon in the freezer, and was inspired to try it out! Gravlax is Scandinavian, Nordic especially, and similar to lox -- a cured but not smoked salmon specialty. Traditionally the salmon is cured with salt, sugar, and dill; frequently other spices (juniper berry, horseradish) and liquor are also incorporated. Historically, the fish was buried during curing ("grav"+ "lax" ...grave salmon), so frequently a weight is placed on the fish during curing which helps the curing elements penetrate the salmon. Most often gravlax is served with hovmästarsås  which is simply a mustard-dill sauce.

Here's a very simple version. Easy, but it needs to cure about 3 days, so plan ahead.

Ingredients
1 lb salmon filet
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C salt (kosher or sea salt)
1 C chopped fresh dill OR 1/3 C dried dill

Serve with...
hovmästarsås sauce (recipe follows)
lettuce
toasted bread / crostini
butter or cream cheese
fresh dill sprigs for garnish

Directions
About 3 days before serving...
Combine sugar and salt in small bowl. Using about 1/3 of the sugar-salt mixture, sprinkle a layer on the bottom of a pan or glass dish just big enough for salmon filet. Top with 1/3 of the dill. Set salmon filet into pan, skin side down. Sprinkle with remaining dill; top with remaining sugar-salt mixture. Cover with plastic wrap. Place a heavy pot or a pan filled with weights (or canned goods) on top of the fish and refigerate for 3 days.

About every 12 hours, drain excess liquid from the pan, flip the filet, re-weight and refrigerate.

To serve...scrape the curing elements from both sides of the fish and pat dry. Place salmon on a cutting board, skin side down; slice very thin, on a slant, across the grain, leaving the skin. Slices can be fanned on a platter for service; keep refrigerated.

Serve on thin sliced bread (a dark, heavy bread is traditional) or crostini. Spread butter or cream cheese onto bread, layer with a lettuce leaf and gravlax slice(s), top with a teaspoon of hovmästarsås sauce and garnish with a dill sprig.


Hovmästarsås Sauce Recipe:

Ingredients
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
2 T cider vinegar
2+ T brown sugar, to taste
2/3 C mustard (preferably coarse grain dark mustard)
1/3 C fresh chopped dill

Directions
Blend all ingredients, season to taste. Refrigerate until serving; serve at room temperature.

Pfeffernuesse (Pepper Nuts)

I remember my Swedish grandma making these spiced cookies. :)

3/4 C sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C coffee
1 egg
1 tsp anise extract
3 C flour
1 tsp each: salt, soda, white pepper, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, nutmeg

Cream together the sugars, coffee, egg and anise. Add all at once the flour, salt, soda, and spices. Roll dough into long, thin 'logs' and cut on the diagonal, 1 to 1 1/2 inches. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes.

Grandma used to dunk these in her coffee. They are a crunchy cookie (not chewy)...kind of like little mini-biscotti...spicy biscotti. :)