Gravlax with paleo crackers

I brought homemade gravlax to My Charming Companion's family Christmas, and it was a big success: meltingly tender and the right amount of salty with really nice accents of dill and caraway. It inspired some commentary and questions about the difference between gravlax and lox: gravlax is cured in salt AND sugar for 1-3 days and includes dill, whereas lox is cured in salt only for several weeks and is often confused with cold smoked salmon. We did all agree that all are delicious, and proceeded to eat it all up. Gravlax is just sort of sparkly and lovely to bring somewhere - it's novel and special and it's cured salmon! yum.

Cured salmon filet before slicing and pressing with dill

There are numerous recipes for gravlax and I ended up searching through lots of them. The recipes vary in the amount of salt and sugar, in the ratio of the two, there is a variety of spices and flavors, and some use alcohol and others don't. What it seems from this wide range of recipes is that there are many ways to make good gravlax, so go with a recipe that appeals to you! I found myself drawn to two: one from Saveur and one from the NY Times (in an article with 3 other recipes) because they used less sugar and salt overall and the spicing seemed most interesting. The recipe I ultimately used was most based on the one in the NY Times by chef Tom Valenti, and needs to cure for about 48 hours. Below is my adaptation.

Gravlax
1 2 pound fillet of salmon, pin bones removed
2 tablespoons vodka or tequila
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 bay leaves, chopped
2 bunches dill, stems and all, minced
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, lightly toasted
1 tablespoon minced tarragon

Salmon on plastic wrap with salt and sugar

1. Place salmon, skin side down, on a large sheet of plastic wrap, and sprinkle it with the alcohol. Mix together the salt and sugar, then sprinkle onto the flesh side of the salmon. Mix together the bay leaves, dill, pepper, caraway seeds, and tarragon. Cover the flesh side of the salmon with the onions and this mixture, making sure to coat it completely (see photo below).
2. Wrap the fish well (as in several layers of plastic wrap), and refrigerate for about 48 hours. The salmon will release a lot of liquid, so be careful to have the whole plastic wrapped package in a tupperware or deep dish of some kind to catch all that liquid.
3. After 48 hours, unwrap the salmon and rinse off the cure.* Dry and filet the skin off as carefully as possible. I chopped up another 1/4 cup of fresh dill and pressed it to the underside of the gravlox so that there was dill in each slice. To serve, slice gravlax thinly with a sharp knife. I had mine with homemade crackers (see below) and it was excellent.

Pre-wrapping it up with all the herbs

*If you are not serving right away, do still rinse off the cure after 48 hours. Not rinsing the cure will make the gravlax more dry and overly salty. Store the gravlax in tupperware or wrapped up until ready to serve. I read that the gravlax keep in this state anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks, but have not tested the longer length!

I made some special paleo crackers to eat my gravlax with - caraway dill almond ones, following my previously posted recipe but swapping out some herbs. They turned out great.

Almond Caraway Dill Crackers
1 3/4 c almond flour
1/2 t sea salt
1 T dried dill
1 T caraway seeds
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 T olive oil
1 egg

1. Mix dry ingredients together - make sure almond flour is nut clumped up.
2. Whisk oil and egg in a small bowl, then add to almond flour mix and stir until combined. The mixture will be wet and quite thick.
3. Roll the dough into a ball and press it between two sheets of parchment paper about 1/8" thick.
4. Remove top parchment layer and cut crackers with a pizza roller or knife into desired size. Transfer the bottom piece of parchment (with cracker dough) to a baking sheet, and bake 12-15 minutes at 350. Let cool for about 30 minutes before serving.