Make the Bread, Buy the Butter - Jennifer Reese [10]
I had made and served much gravlax when I first read about anisakis, a parasitic nematode routinely found in wild salmon. When a larva makes its way into a human body, the human body may end up in the hospital. I had just eaten a slice of gravlax when I learned about anisakis and all afternoon my throat felt oddly scratchy, as if…
I did not in the end have anisakis, but just thinking I might was bad enough.
Preventing it is easy. If you use farmed salmon for your gravlax, you are in luck: anisakis is rarely found in farmed salmon. Unfortunately, farmed salmon is often full of fungicides, pesticides, PCBs, and antibiotics. Moreover, salmon farms can pollute the surrounding waters and endanger wild fish populations. I prefer to buy wild salmon, and wild salmon is frequently host to anisakis. To destroy the parasite, you simply need to freeze the fish and keep it below -4 degrees F for 7 days. I worried that freezing would also destroy the flavor and texture of the salmon, but it doesn’t.
This is a simplified version of a citrus-cured salmon recipe from Boston chef Barbara Lynch. It’s dazzling, this fish, salty and sweet with a fleshiness you seldom find in lox.
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Truly easy
Cost comparison: Salmon prices vary depending on the time of year, the type of salmon, and whether the fish is farmed or wild. If you buy wild salmon in season at $14.99 per pound, you can just about match the price of most smoked salmon, which ranges between $15.00 and $24.00 per pound. I would skip the gravlax when salmon costs $26.00 per pound.
1 pound skin-on salmon fillet
½ cup coriander seeds
¼ cup black peppercorns
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (optional)
Finely grated zest of 3 oranges (optional)
1. If you’re using wild salmon, begin by wrapping it tightly and freezing it for 7 days. Thaw completely in the refrigerator.
2. In a spice grinder, grind the coriander and peppercorns. Toss with the salt, sugar, and citrus zests, if using, and spread half the cure mixture in a container just slightly larger than the salmon, such as a small glass pie plate.
3. Place the salmon on the bed of cure mixture and cover with the rest. You want the salmon immured in cure. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 48 hours.
4. Remove from the cure, rinse well, dry, and slice thinly as needed. Store it unsliced, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator. I wouldn’t keep it more than a week.
Makes 1 pound
HOT DOG BUNS
One day we had a package of hot dogs to use up, but no buns. I’ve served naked hot dogs rolling around on a plate before, but no one in my household is very happy when I do. Likewise, I’m never very happy to go to the supermarket. I decided to try out the bun recipe in The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, a cookbook that has seldom steered me wrong. Mixing and kneading the dough took five minutes. I left it to rise for three hours and went about my day.
Shortly before dinner, I shaped the dough into logs, let them rise briefly, and put them in the oven. They were lopsided and lumpish when they emerged, and didn’t offer a perfectly tidy cradle for the hot dogs. “People rely on hot dog buns to hold their hot dogs,” said Mark, frowning. But once he started eating, even he had to concede that these were superlative hot dog buns, slightly sweet and yeasty, soft and rich.
I found myself reflecting on how bad most hot dog buns are. How we take for granted their badness, how inured we are to their badness. How I always throw away what’s left after the last bite of hot dog because the bread has the texture of foam rubber. But hot dog buns don’t need to be bad!