Home Cured Lox

So a few weeks ago I posted my gluten-free bagel recipe.  So naturally I needed to make some lox to accompany the bagels because a bagel without lox is simply blasphemy.  Seriously lox and bagels bring back so many fond memories for me.  I guess for Jews its just part of so many celebrations; breaking the fast, births/bris, brunch the day after a wedding and so on.  Subconsciously I associate lox and bagels with a reason to celebrate.  So if I’m going to go through the effort of making bagels, I have to make some lox to go with them.  Now that you understand why lox are a necessary addition to any bagel, why not just buy some lox?

Well, yeah you could buy them, but wheres the fun in that?  Buying is certainly easier, but making taste better as you can customize it to your taste, its about 25% the costs and you’ll have the pride in curing your own lox.  Furthermore its actually quite easy.  Yes, its time consuming in the sense that its not ready in an hour or so, but most of the time is simply waiting a few days for the fish to cure.  It’s not like you’re actively working to create this masterpiece.  I assure you that with a bit of planning and some patience these lox are well worth the wait.

Ingredients

• 1 pound Fresh salmon, cut into two equal pieces.  The salmon should be as fresh as possible.  Not sushi grade, but fresh.
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon smoked salt
• 1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 head of fresh dill

Directions

1. Mix salts, brown sugar and pepper (feel free to use kosher salt only if you wish.  You just wont have that slight smokey touch)

   Lox Cure Mixture of salts, brown sugar and black pepper

2. Place fish on a large piece of plastic wrap, skin side down, and cover liberally with salt/sugar/pepper mixture

   Salmon topped with cure and Dill - 5 days till Lox

3. Place the fish without dill on top of the piece that has dill. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap
4. Place fish package in a colander or sieve set over a bowl, and place a weight on top (I just use a large can or tomatoes)

   Salmon in transition to lox

5. The fish will stay in the fridge for 5 days.  Flip the fish daily to ensure its draining properly.
6. After 5 days, unpack and rinse the fish thoroughly to remove the cure.  This is critical as the fish will be too salty if its not rinsed well.

   Fully cured lox waiting to be rinsed and sliced

Rinsed lox - notice the shiny dry exterior

Cut into thin strips, place on a bagel with some cream cheese and enjoy.

Cut lox into thin strips

That’s it.   I hope you give it a try.

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