Smoked Salmon
In the near future we’re planning to have a friends and family gathering in our new apartment. It’s a house warming party in combination with a local art fair, which sounds like a good start and a good reason to get some furniture!
My spouse and I like to throw a good party and being a chef one of my responsibilities is the food part of the gathering.
Usually I like to serve crowd pleasers such as dips & scoopable type of dishes e.g. house-made zesty guacamole with whole grain chips, smooth hummus with a touch of tahini, fresh lemon juice and bright-green parsley served along-side some fresh baked artisan bread crisps. Another favorite is plump, juicy olives, marinated in a mixture of fresh herbs and pepper flakes and crunchy mustard seeds. In addition some sort of hearty satisfying salad such as an organic macaroni salad with a healthy dose of feta and sundried tomatoes or a fresh cabbage and carrot slaw with cranberries and a light mustard dressing is always a success. All that can be easily eaten standing up and the less cutlery that is needed the better.
When a salmon goes to party
This year I’d like to add on a fish dish to my repertoire of party foods. First, I was thinking a sushi type of preparation but that didn’t inspire enough. I tried various fish served in pastrami-style preparations. Traditionally, pastrami is a Jewish Romanian beef dish in which beef is salted and spiced. Then it is air-dried and smoked and eventually boiled in water or steamed. It’s a left over recipe from the days when refrigeration was not available and meat had to be preserved in order to stay edible for a long period of time.
Many people describe salmon as a “flavorful” fish, others refer to it as “fishy” which is because of its fat content. Salmon is ideal for a pastrami type of preparation since it contains a good amount of natural fat. Besides the good-for-you omega three fatty acids, it has a lot of flavor and has a rich mouth-feel. In a pastrami preparation method, the water content in the fish is minimized. In order to get the natural water content lowered, it needs to be seasoned with salt or sugar, which has a dehydrating effect. in addition, the fish is enriched with spices such as coriander, cumin, fennel, cracked black pepper, and covered in herbs such as cilantro, parsley and dill. Many people and chefs add their own “secret” spin of spices and herbs and greatly varying ratios of salt and sugar, which excites the palate.
A pastrami dish is involved and the preparation calls for monitoring over several days. Having a busy life style, my fish recipe testing eventually arrived at kipper salmon. What’s kipper salmon exactly? That was my reaction at first I had a faint idea since I had played around with the pastrami recipes in the past, but after some recipe testing of salmon pastrami, kipper salmon made more sense for the home preparation since it focuses on the salting and air drying, or smoking of fish versus needing a long shopping list of spices and herbs. Kipper salmon used to be served at high tea or supper in the UK and it sounded somewhat “fancy” and seductive -- a sexy-sleek-forbidden pleasure. This seems to make a nice addition to our party.
The kipper salmon preparation takes a good amount of space in the refrigerator – it needs to marinate and age for about three days.
Kipper Salmon
(recipe yields 4 appetizer portions or a party platter for up to 16 people)
1 lb salmon, skin and bones removed, preferably wild salmon
½ cup kosher salt
3 tablespoons agave
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon Dijon type of grain mustard
1. Season salmon with salt, agave, cracked pepper and mustard on both sides.
2. Put salmon on a shallow-flat plate and cover with plastic wrap. Transfer salmon plate to refrigerator. The shallow plate is needed, because, during the aging process, some natural salmon liquid will accumulate. That liquid has to be poured off and discarded on a daily basis.
3. After 48 hours of aging, take the plastic wrap off the plate and air-dry the salmon for another 24 hours in the refrigerator.
4. Slice salmon thinly with a fine, sharp knife.
Chef’s Tip: Serve the kipper salmon with a sauce made of 2 tablespoon of whole milk yoghurt, 1 teaspoon of mustard salt, and black pepper to taste, and a tablespoon of chopped dill.
Chef’s Note: If you want to go the smoked route with your fish, you may want to consider brushing the salmon with a mixture of water and liquid smoke at the beginning of the aging process. Liquid smoke is available in many health food stores and makes the addition of smoke in food a minor step.
