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RECIPE

Recipe: How to make Swedish gin-cured salmon

Food writer John Duxbury shares his recipe for gravad lax with a twist.

Published: 3 November 2017 08:15 CET
Recipe: How to make Swedish gin-cured salmon
John Duxbury/Swedish Food

We’re rapidly approaching the holiday season, and like everything else, the gravad laks gets a season touch. This recipe gives the Swedish classic a sophisticated touch, and makes it a perfect starter or appetiser.

Summary

Serves: 10-12

Difficulty level: Very easy

Preparation time: 20 minutes (plus 72 hours to cure)

Tips

• Ask your fishmonger for salmon for curing (sushi quality) or use frozen salmon.
• Ask for two matching pieces for curing.
• The middle cuts of salmon tend to work better for this dish, but you can also use the tails.
• Use the cured salmon within 2 or 3 days or freeze the fish after curing to ensure that any parasites are killed off.

Ingredients

1.2 kg (2½ lb) salmon fillet, in 2 pieces, with skin on

2 tbsp white peppercorns

2 tsp juniper berries

60 g (4 tbsp)* coarse sea salt (kosher salt)

10 g (2 tsp)* light muscovado sugar

30 g (2 tbsp)* caster (superfine) sugar

25 g (4 tbsp) dill, roughly chopped including stalks

3 tbsp gin

*The salt and sugars are best weighed.

Method

1. Run your fingers over the salmon to feel for any tiny pin bones. If you find any, remove them with tweezers.

2. Coarsely crush the peppercorns and juniper berries using a pestle and mortar.

3. Make your curing mixture by mixing together the salt, sugars, crushed pepper and juniper berries.

4. Cut a piece of clingfilm (plastic wrap) large enough to take both pieces of salmon.

5. Spread a little of the dill and some of the curing mixture on the clingfilm. Place the salmon fillets skin side down on top of it.

6. Rub the rest of the curing mixture over the surface of each fillet, pour the gin over and then add the remaining dill.

7. Bring the two pieces together to create a sandwich, with the skin on the outside. Wrap up well with the clingfilm, place in a freezer bag, trying to exclude as much air as possible, and then tie the bag. Place in a dish, top with a weight (such as a smaller baking dish or plate with cans of beans on top) and leave to cure in the fridge for 48 hours, turning every 12 hours or so.

8. Unwrap the fish, scrape off the dill and discard it. Rinse the salmon quickly under cold running water. Transfer to a fresh plastic bag and return it to the fridge for a further 24 hours to allow the cure to even out.

9. Slice with a very sharp knife, either vertically in 5 mm (¼”) thick slices or at angle in large thin slices. Use within 2 or 3 days or freeze.

Serving suggestions

As an appetiser

Slice thinly and serve on top of thinly sliced rye bread. Garnish with a small piece of lemon and/or a little bit of one of the sauces below. Drip a little gin over the salmon just before serving.

On a smörgåsbord (buffet)

Slice thinly and serve on a large platter garnished with juniper berries and dill sprigs and accompanied by one of the sauces below. Drip a little gin over the salmon just before serving.

As a starter

Slice the gingravad lax thinly and serve with lightly picked cucumber, grated beetroot and a yoghurt or créme fraîche sauce. The quantities below are for 4 people.

For the pickled cucumber: peel a ridge cucumber and slice thinly. Add a teaspoon of white vinegar, a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of freshly chopped dill. Cover with clingfilm and leave to marinate overnight in a fridge.

For the beetroot: wrap a large beetroot in foil and bake at 180°C (375°F, gas 4, fan 160°C) until tender, about an hour. When cool enough to handle, peel and puree with a tablespoon or two of honey and then season with salt.

For the sauce: place 120 g (½ cup) of thick yogurt or créme fraîche in a bowl and stir in the juice of half a lemon or a whole lime along with 2 teaspoons of sugar.

Sauces

Quick mustard sauce

Mix equal quantities of mayonnaise and wholegrain mustard mixed with a little sugar and chopped dill.

Quick watercress sauce

Place a large bunch of chives, 80 g (3 oz) of watercress (tough stalks removed), salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of runny honey in a food processor or blender and blitz until smooth. Mix in 200 g (1 cup) of crème fraiche and transfer the sauce to a fridge for a few hours to mature and set.

Quick avocado sauce

Scoop the flesh from a ripe avocado and place in a bowl. Add the juice of 1 lime, 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 4 tablespoons of créme fraîche (or soured cream), half a teaspoon of salt, 3 drops of Tabasco and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped dill. Stir to mix thoroughly.

Juniper sauce

Crush a tablespoon of juniper berries. Add 120 ml (½ cup) of rapeseed oil and leave to stand for two days. Strain the juniper from the oil. Mix 100 g (4 oz) of wholegrain mustard with half a teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and a tablespoon of spirit vinegar in a food processor. With the motor running, slowly add the juniper flavoured oil.

Recipe published courtesy of John Duxbury, founder and editor of Swedish Food.

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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