The Art of Curing Salmon: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Delicious and Healthy Dish

When it comes to cooking, one of the most impressive dishes you can create is a beautifully cured salmon. This process involves marinating the fish in a mixture of salt, sugar, and other ingredients before allowing it to dry and cure for several hours or days. The result is a deliciously flavored and firm-textured piece of fish that's perfect for serving as a starter or main course.

To start, you'll need a few ingredients including raw salmon, salt, sugar, and cucumber juice. Begin by mixing the salt, sugar, and cucumber juice in a bowl to create a brine solution. This liquid will help to draw out moisture from the fish, creating a dry and flavorful piece of fish. You can also add other ingredients such as herbs or spices to enhance the flavor of the salmon.

Next, place half of the brine mixture in the bottom of a container or on a plate, then carefully place your raw salmon skin side down onto it. The salt and sugar will help to preserve the fish and create a flavorful crust on its surface. Rub the remaining brine solution all over the salmon, making sure to coat it evenly.

Allow the salmon to sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours, flipping it halfway through the time period. This will allow the flavors to penetrate deep into the fish, creating a deliciously flavored and firm piece of meat. After 24 hours, remove the salmon from the container or plate and rinse off any excess salt by running it under cold water.

The resulting salmon is now cured and ready to be served. To finish it, simply pat it dry with kitchen paper and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several days. This will allow the flavors to mature and develop further, creating a truly exceptional dish.

When you're ready to serve your cured salmon, slice it thinly against the grain and arrange it on a plate or platter. Serve it alongside a delicious slaw made from red cabbage, carrots, and golden beets, dressed with lemon juice, ginger, and a hint of sloe gin. The combination of flavors and textures is truly impressive, making this dish perfect for serving at any occasion.

One of the key ingredients in this recipe is beetroot. Beetroot adds a sweet and earthy flavor to the slaw, which pairs perfectly with the savory flavor of the salmon. To make the slaw, simply chop up the red cabbage, carrots, and golden beets into thin strips and combine them in a bowl. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and a drizzle of sloe gin to taste.

Using a food processor with a grating disc is also crucial for creating this recipe. Simply chop up the ingredients until they're finely chopped, then process them together until you get a smooth and creamy slaw. Be careful not to overprocess the ingredients, as this can result in a mushy or unappetizing texture.

Finally, when it comes to seasoning your salmon, remember that less is often more. A squeeze of lemon juice, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and a drizzle of sloe gin are all you need to bring out the flavors of the fish. Avoid over-seasoning the dish, as this can result in a flavor that's too bold or overpowering.

In conclusion, curing salmon is an art that requires patience, attention to detail, and a willingness to experiment with new ingredients and techniques. By following these steps and tips, you'll be able to create a deliciously flavored and healthy dish that's perfect for serving at any occasion.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enChristmas is that time of love sharing and showing off your friends and I'm going to show Barry how this dish handles all three it's really easy to make because can we put loads of stuff under Ben's tree this is a proper show-stopping dish you put this down the table and you're bound to get a reaction also then my I love advice because we love this dish more than life itself yes and I love gin so we're going to take all the flavours from my favorite drink gin mm-hmm and put it into the mix we're gonna cure that comes first so an equal weight of salt and sugar a lot of salt and a lot of sugar but you need that the curing process it doesn't mean you're gonna eat it all it just helps with the osmosis so essentially it's like gravlax remaking which is like a cured salmon dish it's Nordic it's delicious often covered in mustard and deal we're not doing that bit but we're using the same process gravlax literally translate to Toby brave dig deep blacks salmon dig a sandwich giving us a meal herbarium fishermen used to put it in the salty sand and that used to cure it and kind of half fermented we didn't mention bit anymore we certainly don't use the sand but it's a similar process so then your teeth that'd be the worst they are so you said the djinn and salmon both love citrus so lemon I love gin with cucumber so a little bit of that how much these flavors room into the salmon a surprising amount is it because it's gonna be there for 24 hours yeah do you think about gin gin is a beautiful spirit and I love Jim because it can take on so many different flavours and botanicals and spices and citrus and so many things we're gonna see how many of those we can put in got some fresh thyme and then gin wouldn't be gin without juniper berries about a tablespoon of those in I don't know what juniper berries actually tastes like can you either normally we wouldn't really it's just juniper I don't know it's such a unique flavor that yeah 300 a very recognizable flavor I think it's a bit bitter huh kind of tea life isn't it we've got enough salt in there but we want a little bit of pepper you guys said pink pepper 1/4 tablespoon of those try one of those no dirt eat it you won't learn if you don't try these things and then wonderful more sort of spices and heard you got some fennel seeds and some caraway and caraway is another very distinctive flavor taste it no taste it I like Karen great and flatbread not on their own once all the liquid comes out the cucumber you end up with this kind of sludge you can find a fair word and slow fragrant botanical infused sludge heavily nearly and now for the word I used earlier osmosis so all the salt and the sugar is going to draw out the natural moisture of our salmon so a nice big piece of raw salmon smoked if you like skin still on and we put half of this in the bottom and then you're gonna get your hands involved and basically get the salmon in and rub all of this in and around and on now you can see how thick that mixture is now once you've rubbed it all in cling film it put it in the fridge for 24 hours maybe turn it and rub it again half way through what comes out something like that but you can see how much more liquid there is and that's all the liquid out of the salmon so this is our cured salmon 24 hours off about some in the fridge oh really firm now you're still not going to want to eat this because there's way too much salt on the outside so we're gonna rub most of it off and then just run it under cold water or submerge it in a bowl of cold water and that will just get rid of any excess give it a little bath salt but all the flavor has penetrated through and then we're just gonna leave it on the side to dry we'll just pat dry with some kitchen roll and now this will keep wrapped up for another couple of days it's cured so it's basically good this is an impressive starter you can serve up your friends but with all the fast when i say fast I mean blending some agreed into putting it in the fridge way in advance you've got your apron on which can mean one thing one thing only beetroot beetroot I'm getting messy fans I've dollar room atop I hate to break it to you these guys have solved that problem we're gonna use golden beet roots it shouldn't be an issue anyway Salmons down ready for the slaw so not just what we're chopping up but what we're dressing it with all juicers when you go just a green apple red cabbage golden be true and obviously carrots you want to pee all the ones that need peeling we're gonna keep the peel on the Apple that's like okay then we're going to plate it through the food processor with the grating disc for speed and you're gonna see how quickly this slaw comes together and this is why I love this dish because you've been nearly done you're when you get a really dumb but also you've got the salmon which is full of omega-3 so it's rich its oily fish it's delicious and then all of this we roll to make it nice to eat you want to get it nice and smooth so the grater is going to do all of that it's fitted and all we need to do is plunge it down through here on a high speed coleslaw duck last thing to do is to mix up and to dress it now a counselor might typically have mayonnaise or creme fraiche you guys said keep this one light so it's just lemon juice and the best suggestion I've heard yet given that we're doing all the gin flavors for the salmon a little dribble of sloe gin this bit is important delusion you can leave it the album peppers he needs it in his life we're gonna season it salt pepper lemon juice and ginger you don't over mix it you don't want all the color from the red cabbage to leach too much cheaper he tell it just enough so that it all gets a little lemon juice it all gets a bit of salt pepper and it definitely will gets a little bit of gin Wow what the temperature is to go that way I think the tech is is nice sharp knife quite a large knife so you can get long strokes and you don't want to start here and work that way yeah you kind of want to cut it on the diagonals the first couple and end pieces like that you can take Oh every flavor into that slaw takes seconds once your salmon is cured and in the fridge it doesn't take me moments to slice that isn't impressive sorry what's this cucumber sorted I feel like you take the suspense out the taste of this with your reaction when I first tasted it now Jamie's our first person to tell you that this floor isn't a slaw without cut without mayonnaise but that is spectacular I'm not but for some reason there's some vegetables with it well I think it's just wet earthy the cabbage and the cara and the beef treated quite earthy obviously got the tang of Apple and then lemon juice so it's well seasoned its crunchy its colorful its inviting it's delicious and you'll want to give it go recipeChristmas is that time of love sharing and showing off your friends and I'm going to show Barry how this dish handles all three it's really easy to make because can we put loads of stuff under Ben's tree this is a proper show-stopping dish you put this down the table and you're bound to get a reaction also then my I love advice because we love this dish more than life itself yes and I love gin so we're going to take all the flavours from my favorite drink gin mm-hmm and put it into the mix we're gonna cure that comes first so an equal weight of salt and sugar a lot of salt and a lot of sugar but you need that the curing process it doesn't mean you're gonna eat it all it just helps with the osmosis so essentially it's like gravlax remaking which is like a cured salmon dish it's Nordic it's delicious often covered in mustard and deal we're not doing that bit but we're using the same process gravlax literally translate to Toby brave dig deep blacks salmon dig a sandwich giving us a meal herbarium fishermen used to put it in the salty sand and that used to cure it and kind of half fermented we didn't mention bit anymore we certainly don't use the sand but it's a similar process so then your teeth that'd be the worst they are so you said the djinn and salmon both love citrus so lemon I love gin with cucumber so a little bit of that how much these flavors room into the salmon a surprising amount is it because it's gonna be there for 24 hours yeah do you think about gin gin is a beautiful spirit and I love Jim because it can take on so many different flavours and botanicals and spices and citrus and so many things we're gonna see how many of those we can put in got some fresh thyme and then gin wouldn't be gin without juniper berries about a tablespoon of those in I don't know what juniper berries actually tastes like can you either normally we wouldn't really it's just juniper I don't know it's such a unique flavor that yeah 300 a very recognizable flavor I think it's a bit bitter huh kind of tea life isn't it we've got enough salt in there but we want a little bit of pepper you guys said pink pepper 1/4 tablespoon of those try one of those no dirt eat it you won't learn if you don't try these things and then wonderful more sort of spices and heard you got some fennel seeds and some caraway and caraway is another very distinctive flavor taste it no taste it I like Karen great and flatbread not on their own once all the liquid comes out the cucumber you end up with this kind of sludge you can find a fair word and slow fragrant botanical infused sludge heavily nearly and now for the word I used earlier osmosis so all the salt and the sugar is going to draw out the natural moisture of our salmon so a nice big piece of raw salmon smoked if you like skin still on and we put half of this in the bottom and then you're gonna get your hands involved and basically get the salmon in and rub all of this in and around and on now you can see how thick that mixture is now once you've rubbed it all in cling film it put it in the fridge for 24 hours maybe turn it and rub it again half way through what comes out something like that but you can see how much more liquid there is and that's all the liquid out of the salmon so this is our cured salmon 24 hours off about some in the fridge oh really firm now you're still not going to want to eat this because there's way too much salt on the outside so we're gonna rub most of it off and then just run it under cold water or submerge it in a bowl of cold water and that will just get rid of any excess give it a little bath salt but all the flavor has penetrated through and then we're just gonna leave it on the side to dry we'll just pat dry with some kitchen roll and now this will keep wrapped up for another couple of days it's cured so it's basically good this is an impressive starter you can serve up your friends but with all the fast when i say fast I mean blending some agreed into putting it in the fridge way in advance you've got your apron on which can mean one thing one thing only beetroot beetroot I'm getting messy fans I've dollar room atop I hate to break it to you these guys have solved that problem we're gonna use golden beet roots it shouldn't be an issue anyway Salmons down ready for the slaw so not just what we're chopping up but what we're dressing it with all juicers when you go just a green apple red cabbage golden be true and obviously carrots you want to pee all the ones that need peeling we're gonna keep the peel on the Apple that's like okay then we're going to plate it through the food processor with the grating disc for speed and you're gonna see how quickly this slaw comes together and this is why I love this dish because you've been nearly done you're when you get a really dumb but also you've got the salmon which is full of omega-3 so it's rich its oily fish it's delicious and then all of this we roll to make it nice to eat you want to get it nice and smooth so the grater is going to do all of that it's fitted and all we need to do is plunge it down through here on a high speed coleslaw duck last thing to do is to mix up and to dress it now a counselor might typically have mayonnaise or creme fraiche you guys said keep this one light so it's just lemon juice and the best suggestion I've heard yet given that we're doing all the gin flavors for the salmon a little dribble of sloe gin this bit is important delusion you can leave it the album peppers he needs it in his life we're gonna season it salt pepper lemon juice and ginger you don't over mix it you don't want all the color from the red cabbage to leach too much cheaper he tell it just enough so that it all gets a little lemon juice it all gets a bit of salt pepper and it definitely will gets a little bit of gin Wow what the temperature is to go that way I think the tech is is nice sharp knife quite a large knife so you can get long strokes and you don't want to start here and work that way yeah you kind of want to cut it on the diagonals the first couple and end pieces like that you can take Oh every flavor into that slaw takes seconds once your salmon is cured and in the fridge it doesn't take me moments to slice that isn't impressive sorry what's this cucumber sorted I feel like you take the suspense out the taste of this with your reaction when I first tasted it now Jamie's our first person to tell you that this floor isn't a slaw without cut without mayonnaise but that is spectacular I'm not but for some reason there's some vegetables with it well I think it's just wet earthy the cabbage and the cara and the beef treated quite earthy obviously got the tang of Apple and then lemon juice so it's well seasoned its crunchy its colorful its inviting it's delicious and you'll want to give it go recipe\n"