skinny girls & mayonnaise

So your friends, the Murphys, down the street, who lived in Argentina for awhile and fancy themselves Argentines, are having a party for the World Cup Final. They are making a traditional asado for the afternoon meal, and you want to bring a nice complementary appetizer. What do you settle on? Gravlax, of course.

Sockeye salmon curing

While the closest thing to a Scandinavian country in the World Cup would be, I guess, the Netherlands, in today’s globally connected world of culinary mash-ups, there’s no need to be overly legalistic. Plus, if the Murphys were celebrating their Argentine-ness, why shouldn’t I celebrate my one-quarter Swedishness? Most importantly, however, was the beautiful fresh sockeye salmon I’d discovered on sale while out shopping the other day, and was looking for an occasion to cure and serve.

From a plating standpoint, sockeye is the most beautiful salmon — the flesh a deep color of red you will only encounter otherwise in the ripest summer strawberry. For inspiration on my curing, I turned to the Aquavit cookbook by New York chef Marcus Samuelsson — an Ethiopian who grew up with an adopted family in Sweden. Dill doesn’t grow well in our deserty canyon, so I decided to go a bit more Mediterranean on my cure — employing lemon thyme, pepper and onion. Plus, this was futbol — dill is kinda feminine.

Sunday morning of the match, I removed the salmon from the cure and employed my sushi knife to cut it thin. Some grainy German rye brot (shhh, our hosts didn’t just hear that) would provide a nice stage for the salmon while representing the second World Cup finalists in the face of asado. A bit of grainy mustard and some shaved dill pickle (that one’s for you, Marcus Samuelsson!) folded into mayonnaise, a squeeze of lemon and some daikon sprouts on top would finish the canapés. World cup indeed!

The finished gravlax

Argentina lost — 0 – 1 — in the end, they couldn’t hold off the final blitzkrieg of the unrelenting Germans, who seemed to have simply outlasted them. But the gravlax was tasty, as was the two types of empanadas from a nearby Argentine market (!!!), and Tracy’s delicious asado served with chimichurra sauce evoked gauchos riding the open pampas. And after all, sports are mostly just an occasion to get together to eat and drink, right??

Enjoy!

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Lemon thyme, pepper & onion gravlax
serves 4 – 6 as an appetizer

1/2 lb. salmon fillet, tiny bones removed
2 tbsp. kosher salt
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. fresh lemon thyme leaves
3-4 slices shaved onion
1 tsp. freshly cracked pepper

It is crucial that the salmon for this dish be very fresh — the flesh firm with a clean saline scent and no traces of fishiness.

Brush the salmon fillet with first the salt, then the sugar. Place in a glass container or upon a plate, top with the thyme leaves and the onion shavings, cover and set aside in a cool spot in the kitchen for 4-5 hours.

Move the salmon to the fridge and let cure for 24 – 48 hours.

Remove from the fridge and, using a sushi knife or your sharpest blade, cut thin slices against the grain, ending at the skin (if you’ve used skin-on salmon). Continue until all salmon has been thinly sliced.

Serve with grainy bread and creme fraiche or mustard.