Sunday mornings are for ease and quiet and maybe some classical music and perhaps the NY Times scattered about. If there is going to be any entertaining it needs to be low maintenance.
Fish for breakfast, according to my dear friend Anthony, is SUCH a NY thing to do. Seriously, raw fish during the tender lights of day? and not anything mild or boring, but smoked or cured, such as this gravlax that I laced with garlic chives and meyer lemon zest.
Now, Let me say that I’ve been chided by a Swiss fellow for not recanting the true history of raclette in one of my recent posts (truth be told, I never recanted ANY history) and I don’t propose to the be the master of the “must know” about gravlax- BUT I can tell you this…
It’s one of the easiest things to make and delightfully enjoyable- especially for those watching waistlines.
I purchased a beautiful piece of wild salmon that I hand picked from the fish monger. Once home I gave it a good rinse and patted it dry. Then I took a generous amount of flaked salt, minced some garlic chives and grated the zest from a meyer lemon and then, after combining all three, covered the flesh of the fish very generously. I put the flesh side down onto a large plate with a little well in it, wrapped it tight in plastic then placed another opposing plate on top.
Into the fridge it went and I took a bottle of wine and my ever constant bottle of bubbly, and lay them on top to keep plate pressed to fish. Then just left it.
A few days later I removed my little bundle, drained the liquid that had been pulled out of the fish and it was ready to slice and serve.
The zest and garlic chive gives the Salmon a lovely mellow flavor. It’s nice enough to eat just so on some crackers or chewy bread. Typically I serve my gravlax with some honey mustard- just take 3:1 parts of mustard and honey and stir together. You can adjust this formula to your taste. More mustard more heat.
And that, my dears, is it. A beautiful and delicious dish that requires a whole lot of nothing to do. The most difficult thing to do is slice it all. Sharpen your knife with the thinnest blade as best you can and channel your inner Zabar Salmon Slicer and have at it.
The thin folds of the salmon make little bright jewels on the plate. Keep this cold until ready to serve and store any left over as soon as possible after serving.
Enjoy my doves!
