With Hanukkah around the corner, I thought I’d try my hand at some Gravlax. My hubby also loves smoked salmon, so it’s also a nice treat for him. We recently did Whole30, and the thing he craved most was a gravlax. Most gravlax is made with sugar, but I replaced the regular sugar with coconut palm sugar and it worked out great. Even if you aren’t celebrating Hanukkah, this is an excellent recipe. It could be great for Christmas morning. However, it does take commitment. The salmon has to cure for about 48 hours. Though you’re not doing much while its doing it’s thing, it still takes planning. Also, I absolutely love capers, and include them in as many things as I can.
When Mezzetta invited us to participate in their Mezzetta Memories holiday giveaways, I knew right away that capers would be on my menu somewhere. We were excited to participate in this giveaway for a couple of reasons; first, our readers can enter to win a gift basket every day in December and we love to give stuff away; second, we don’t use pickled products often enough, and love the inspiration and motivation to include them; third, the giveaway is all about making memories with food, which is what we hope our readers do with every recipes we post.
So, like I said, the salmon does take committment. Once you decide to make it, be sure to get a high quality salmon fillet. Preparing it only takes a few minutes. Once you’re put the recipe together be sure the salmon is tightly wrapped in the foil. It will get hard on the ends if you let them open a little. You can check this when you go to flip it. It’ll sit in the refrigerator for about 48 hours.
When your gravlax is done and you’re ready to slice, be sure you’re using the sharpest knife in your kitchen. You’ll want to make sure the pieces are very thin. Here is a video I found that was really helpful to me.
To me, the cream cheese is what makes this recipes divine. It’s really simple to make, just buy a high quality organic cream cheese. Soften the 
cream cheese and then whisk all the ingredients together. The final product is delicious! Also, through the Mezzetta Memories giveaway, you can actually go and download a coupon for any Mezzetta product, including capers!
Don’t forget to enter the Mezzetta Memories Giveaway, you can win something everyday in December!
Ingredients
1 3-4 lb salmon fillet, skin on
1 cup coconut palm sugar
1 cup sea salt
1 large bunch dill, chopped
1 block organic cream cheese, softened
juice from 1 lemon
2 tbsp Mezzetta Capers
1 tsp caper juice
Instructions
- Place the salmon on a large piece of aluminum foil.
- Add the coconut palm sugar and salt to a medium bowl, stir to combine.
- Rub the sugar/salt mixture all over the salmon.
- Place the salmon skin side down on the aluminum foil. Place the dill all over the flesh side.
- Wrap the salmon tightly in foil.
- Place it on a large plate or baking sheet.
- Place the salmon in the refrigerator with a light weight on top of it. I used a small baking sheet.
- Keep the salmon in the refrigerator for 36-48 hours, turning it 3-4 times during the process.
- Remove the salmon and scrape the sugar, salt and dill from it.
- Cut thin slices from the top starting at the wide end moving toward the smaller end.
- Whisk together all the ingredients.
- Store in an airtight container.
- Serve the salmon with the Lemon Caper Cream Cheese, with additional capers, lemons.
- Optional: rye crackers, paleo crackers, toasted points
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