Tag Archives: juniper

Gravlax Juniper

dalek dancing

I just became a Resident Alien. This I celebrated by making gravlax…

1 kilo (2 lb) salmon fillet
1 teaspoon crushed pepper
4 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons sucanat or regular sugar
40 crushed juniper berries
lots of fresh dill

If you use fresh salmon you should  freeze it for at least 24 hours, to make sure that there are no parasites in the fish. Clean the salmon fillets of any bones but keep the skin. The skin makes it easier later on when you are going to slice it up. Crush the junipers in a mortar. Mix together with salt, pepper and sucanat. Rub the fillet with some of the mixture. Divide the rest of the mixture on top and add the dill. If you have two fillets, place them together, meat against meat with dill in between. Place the fillet in a plastic freezer bag and close it carefully. Let the fillets rest in the fridge for 1-2 days and turn them now and again. Thinner fillets can be done in 24 hours but thicker pieces need 48 hours to be ready to serve. Unwrap and clean the fillets. Start to slice the gravlax into thin diagonal slivers by using a fillet knife starting at the small end of the fish. Gravlax can be stored in the fridge for nearly a week or longer in the freezer.
This type of Gravlax I prefer to serve on a small piece of home made “knäckebröd” topped with Sabine’s lingonberry cream and decorated with new fresh dill.

See also my previous recipe on Gravlax

Venison Sausage

sausage2

One sunny day in November I finally got to do something I have been wanting to for a long time, home-made sausages. As our friend Russel has a food grinder and a sausage stuffer kit we went to his house in Brooklyn. On the way we stopped by at the butcher to get the meat and the pork casings. The butcher got so excited about our project that he gave me plenty of pork fat for free! This was what we made…

4 lb venison
1 ½ lb pork fat
some red chili, fresh or flakes
15- 20 juniper berries
rosemary
sage
4 teaspoons mustard seeds
5-6 garlic cloves
salt
pepper
and
pork casings – They came 50 feet long in a small container. I used hardly any. However the casing can be stored sealed in the fridge for a long time.

Clean the pork casing by rinsing it in water. Let it soak in fresh water while preparing the filling. Mush the juniper in a mortar, together with chili, mustard seeds, rosemary and sage. Cut the venison and the pork fat into smaller pieces and ground the meat in a food grinder.  Its important to keep the meat cold, in fact it can actually be a little frozen. Add the prepared spices to the ground meat,  and season with salt and pepper. To be sure the sausage has enough flavor, I recommend you fry some up to taste before you start stuff the casing. Get your stuffer ready and slip on the casing to the pipe and finish with a small knot at the end. Feed the grinder (*or whatever you are using) and gently fill the casing. At last, when all meat is filled, make “knots” in between the sausages by twisting the casing.

As the weather was lovely, we decided to have a barbecue. I served the sausages with a warm tomato salsa and a fresh salad.

*If you don’t have a sausage stuffer kit you can try to use a cake decorator.

Also check out my Pork Sausage