Sunday, December 7, 2008

December again

If you haven't noticed yet, chrismast is approaching... Paris is more than ever the city of lights and everyone starts wondering about christmas presents.
December also means going back to Nantes for christmas and having an access to a real kitchen!! My mother is not fond of cooking and so I'm in charge of preparing the lunch on the 25th. So I put my nose again in my cooking books and magasines and went for some wandering on my favorites cooking site and blogs. I still haven't decide yet what I will prepare. But one of my favorite recipe is marinated salmon (gravlax kind). So if you're looking for something to prepare as a starter, maybe it can help you.

Marinated salmon (serves 6)

PREPARE A DAY BEFORE SERVING !

2 salmon filets with their skin (500g in total)
2 tablespoons sugar (brown is better)
4 tablespoons of salt (i take "gros sel" from Guerande)
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
some dill (I don't like to have a too strong taste of dill so I don't use much)

Mix sugar, salt and black pepper.
Wash the salmon and dry the remaining water.
Put the 1st fillet, skin down, in a dish. Spread the salt & sugar mix all over salmon and add the dill.
Cover with the second filet (skin up).
Cover with plastic film, and find something to press the salmon (eg. other dish, plate+died beans).
Put for 6h in fridge. After 6h, remove the water from the dish, turn the salmon upside down (upper filet is now down), and put it back in the fridge for 2 more hours. Do this 2 more times -> that will be 24h to marinate.

Take out of fridge 1h before serving.
Remove the salt & sugar mix using absorbing paper.
Cut in thin slices, normally the skin will go by itself, but if not, remove it!

Serve with toasts.

You might want to serve a sauce with it. My favorite one is made of 1 tablespoon of cream and 1 tablespoon of yogourt, with a pinch of salt, dill and chive.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

w00t! you get to decide the christmas menu, cool... hmmm that sounds delish!

Anne said...

It's really good and easy. You just have to chose a good salmon