Beet-Stained Gravlax, Salmon Roe, Heirloom Carrots, Mixed Lettuce with A Creamy Beet Dressing

Joan’s Gravlax Salad

  • Joan’s Gravlax Salad
  • Joan’s Gravlax Salad
  • Joan’s Gravlax Salad
  • Joan’s Gravlax Salad
  • Joan’s Gravlax Salad
  • Joan’s Gravlax Salad
  • Joan’s Gravlax Salad

NOTES

Contains specialty ingredients. Salmon Roe is pricey. Do not attempt to make gravlax with anything but the best quality fish – it is basically raw, so you want to make sure it starts out as fresh as possible. This is a great party dish though, oh, the colors! gravlax is a great party dish, very impressive, colorful and indulgent.

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix sugar, salt and dill seeds and dredge the salmon filet until it’s coated on all sides.

Place 4 thin slices of beets on a sheet of plastic wrap, about 4 times the size of the filet. Place the filet on top of the beets and then place more thin slices of beets on top of the filet to cover it. Wrap the salmon and beets with the plastic wrap. Prick holes in the saran wrap on both sides. Place the wrapped filet on a dish, with a small wire rack, like the kind used to cool cakes, under the salmon, to create a space for the oil in the salmon to drip into. Use a book or another plate to weight the salmon.

Refrigerate. In 24 hours, turn the salmon to its other side. Wipe off any juices that may have drained into the plate. Continue turning the salmon once a day for 3 days, until it’s cured. Remove beets, wash off spices and pat dry before cutting. With a SHARP knife, slice on an angle, as thin as possible.

Steam beets. Mix all ingredients in blender.

Peel carrots and slice thinly in matchstick pieces, 4” long. Toss your mixture of greens with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

Spoon dressing on one end of the plate. Arrange salmon on the other end of the plate. Top with greens and carrots.

Place salmon roe around the plate, resist the urge to over do it.

RECIPE

DIFFICULTY

HARD

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SERVES

2

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PREP TIME

30 MINS

Gravlax

  • 1/2 
    lb 
    salmon filet (cut from the belly, so it’s a thick piece)
  • 2 
     
    beets (boiled or you can use canned beets, if you must)
  • 2 
    tbs 
    sea salt
  • 2 
    tbs 
    sugar
  • 1 
    tbs 
    dill seeds

Salad

  • 4 
    oz. 
    mixture of colored greens, here we used a variety of gem lettuces
  • 3-4 
     
    small heirloom carrots of different color varieties
  • 1 
    tsp 
    balsamic vinegar
  • 1 
    tbs 
    olive oil
  • 1 
     
    small container of salmon roe

Beet dressing

  • 2 
     
    red beets
  • 1 
    cup 
    buttermilk
  • 1 
    cup 
    lemon juice
  • 2 
    tsp  
    pink peppercorn
  • 1 
     
    garlic clove
  • 1/2 
    cup 
    olive oil
  • 1 
    tsp  
    dried cilantro

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix sugar, salt and dill seeds and dredge the salmon filet until it’s coated on all sides.

Place 4 thin slices of beets on a sheet of plastic wrap, about 4 times the size of the filet. Place the filet on top of the beets and then place more thin slices of beets on top of the filet to cover it. Wrap the salmon and beets with the plastic wrap. Prick holes in the saran wrap on both sides. Place the wrapped filet on a dish, with a small wire rack, like the kind used to cool cakes, under the salmon, to create a space for the oil in the salmon to drip into. Use a book or another plate to weight the salmon.

Refrigerate. In 24 hours, turn the salmon to its other side. Wipe off any juices that may have drained into the plate. Continue turning the salmon once a day for 3 days, until it’s cured. Remove beets, wash off spices and pat dry before cutting. With a SHARP knife, slice on an angle, as thin as possible.

Steam beets. Mix all ingredients in blender.

Peel carrots and slice thinly in matchstick pieces, 4” long. Toss your mixture of greens with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

Spoon dressing on one end of the plate. Arrange salmon on the other end of the plate. Top with greens and carrots.

Place salmon roe around the plate, resist the urge to over do it.

When I asked my mother, Joan Sherman, to guest blog, I had no idea she would treat this with the same level of rigor with which she treats her myriad of other projects: hand painted textiles, sculpture and painting, canning and preserving, gardening, fern propagation, 17th Dutch painting scholarship, rediscovering Proust, interior design and oh lord, so much more. She calls this salad, “Forbidden Color Salad.”

Gimme a second, I am out of breath.

Where I am hasty and impatient, my mother is deliberate and focused. And although she is generally allergic to following recipes, she does well to make her own.

We started out in Chelsea Market, where we bought a nice slab of fatty Atlantic Salmon. This was perfect for gravlax, which should be unctuous and smooth, and not at all fishy. It differs from smoked salmon, well… because it is not smoked. It is cured – coated in spices and salt, wrapped in plastic, weighted down, and placed in the fridge. I really love the part where you get to search for objects to use as the weight (canned goods work well, and you can balance a grapefruit on top of the can for fun). The beets are used solely to stain the fish – they don’t lend any kind of “beety” flavor. Joan used the color palate of the resulting ombré gravlax to determine the rest of her jewel-toned ingredients. Very painterly.

Salmon roe, if you are  unfamiliar, are the bath beads of the sea. They pop in your mouth, releasing tiny pools of salty fish oil onto your tongue. It took me some time to get used to this (I never was a fan of Gushers as a kid), but now I can’t get enough; I order salmon roe sushi (Ikura) every chance I get. You can find this at a high-end fish monger, or at a Japanese grocery store. Don’t be afraid to buy it frozen – it has all been frozen and thawed at some point, so in theory, the frozen roe could be fresher than the thawed.

The greens and carrots are dressed simply with olive oil and vinegar, but the whole salad rests atop a pool of this shockingly vibrant, fuchsia beet dressing, laced with pink peppercorns. If you don’t have these, you can use black pepper, but the pink have floral notes that are completely different. Once you are familiar with them, you will want to use them on everything (my favorite is in sugar cookies).

There is not a dull moment on this plate.