Recipe Vanilla cured salmon with cucumber ketchup, charred cucumber and pickled ginger

Elawin

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A Sugar and vanilla mixture is used to cure salmon overnight. Serve it cold in thin slices with tangy pickled ginger and a green ketchup.

Preparation time: overnight
Cooking time: less than 10 mins
Serves: 8-10

Ingredients
:

For the salmon:

2 vanilla pods
200 g/7 oz caster sugar
200 g/7 oz sea salt
1.5 kg/3 lb 5 oz salmon fillet, skin on, pin boned, washed and patted dry
1 bunch breakfast radishes, halved lengthways, to garnish
1 punnet mustard cress, to garnish
watercress, to garnish

For the cucumber:

2 cucumbers
100 ml/3 ½ fl oz rice wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp sea salt
2-3 tsp xantham gum
rapeseed oil, for griddling

For the pickled ginger:

100 ml/3 ½ fl oz rice wine vinegar
1 pinch caster sugar
1 pinch sea salt
50 g/1 ¾ oz piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely cut into thin strips

Method:

For the salmon:
  1. Put the vanilla pods and sugar into a food processor, blend to a fine purée and then stir in the sea salt.
  2. Place some cling film on a clean work surface, then put half the sugar mixture in a line down the centre.
  3. Place the salmon fillet on top, skin-side down then sprinkle the rest of the mixture over the top to cover the salmon.
  4. Wrap the salmon up loosely with the cling film, then place it on a tray in the fridge for 24 hours.
  5. Remove the salmon from the cling film, brush off the salt mixture and rinse it thoroughly under cold water, then pat dry and wrap in clean cling film until ready to serve.
For the cucumber ketchup:

  1. Cut the outer edge of the cucumbers off so that you are left with long 2 cm/ ¾ in square batons. Set aside.
  2. Roughly chop the outer parts of the cucumber before putting into a food processor with the rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt.
  3. Blend to a fine purée, then add the xanthan gum one teaspoon at a time until it thickens.
For the charred cucumber:

Heat a griddle pan until hot, drizzle the cucumber batons with a little rapeseed oil and then cook on each side until charred and hot through. Remove from the heat and cut into small cubes.

For the pickled ginger:
  1. Place the vinegar, sugar and salt into a medium saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved.
  2. Add the ginger and simmer for 1-2 minutes, or until the ginger has wilted down.
  3. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
To serve:

Slice the salmon finely and layer onto each plate, top with pieces of the charred cucumber, teaspoon-sized blobs of the ketchup and the halved radishes. Scatter the pickled ginger, mustard cress and watercress over the top to finish.

Notes:
  1. Recipe by James Martin, from James Martin: Home Comforts
  2. Video - https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/vanilla_cured_salmon_21998
 
Well, I decided to 'test kitchen' this recipe. I really couldn't justify the cost of a whole side of salmon since there are not enough people here to eat it. I used 500g middle cut from side of salmon and divided the ingredients by 3. The only other change was that I used soft brown sugar instead of caster sugar. It is now curing in the fridge - so more photos later.

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@morning glory

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Are you able to get fresh salmon or is it pre-frozen. Wild caught or farm raised?

I quit using farm raised when I heard that Bayer had introduced GMO salmon. I can find wild caught. It has usually been flash frozen then defrosted for sale. Every now and then I find fresh, wild caught salmon at Whole Foods. Expensive. The process used in flash freezing does not seem to compromise either the texture or the flavor. Like you I do not purchase the entire side. So for the folks at Whole Foods have been willing to cut out the center portion for me - if they do not already have center pieces in the cooler.

I make crispy skin salmon that George salivates over.
 
Its farmed salmon - in the UK stocks of wild salmon in the Atlantic are seriously depleted partly due to over-fishing so it is better to use farmed unless the salmon is caught in a certified well stocked river - that is the advice of the Marine Conservation Society.
 
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