I don’t know about y’all but I looooove me some lox, gravlax, smoked salmon, all that good cured stuff! One of my very favorite ways to cure salmon is insanely fast – and you can make a big bunch of the seasoning mix in advance and have it for the future!
As we are obsessed with our annual shares of Alaskan wild salmon from the good folks at Iliamna that we’ve been enjoying for many years now (even driving the 2 hours to Portland now for pickup every August because, ironically, no one on the coast has thought of doing this and even though it’s good, it’s crazy expensive the way they sell it here!), we’re always trying to think of new things to make with it. From salmon cakes to fish ‘n’ chips to honey ginger grilled salmon to this way I’m going to show you below, we love it.
(And if you’ve only had Atlantic salmon, you seriously don’t know what you’re missing! My husband never had Pacific / Alaskan salmon until he immigrated to the US and something he used to hate (Atlantic) is now something he is almost as obsessed with as I am :)
What I love about this recipe is it’s almost impossible to screw up, and takes minutes to get started. Literally grab some maple syrup (or molasses which makes it a bit richer in flavor), spread it all over the salmon fillet in a casserole dish, massage in the cure, cover it and toss it in the fridge. Flip it every day for 3 days, pull it out, rinse it off, cut off a bite and….mmmmm…..
Below I’ve shared not only the complete recipe (which includes some pretty ways to ‘accessorize’ it) straight from my cook-binder, but how this pretty darling looks as it’s curing. FYI I just use a regular fillet, this recipe is for an entire SIDE of salmon so just use enough syrup and cure to cover it and save the rest of the cure in a canning jar for the next time you want to do it.
Instead of spending a zillion dollar on lox at the store, I swear this will convert you to DIY-ing it at home.
Enjoy!
