Recently my husband and I have really  been  into homemade food. Since it’s s difficult and sometimes very expensive to buy some of our favorite foods here in Jakarta we have been experimenting with different recipes. We now make our own yogurt, dill pickles, granola and cured salmon.

We took a fish preparation class together and that’s where we learned to cure our own salmon. I was a bit hesitant at first to try to prepare it ourselves but it turned out very good and it was so easy to make!

Here’s the recipe we followed:

Citrus Cured Salmon

Ingredients

1 side of salmon, ask your fish monger to filet, skin-on and have pin bones removed

For the curing mix:

2 cups coarse salt (must be coarse)

2 cups sugar

1 cup coriander seed

1/2 cup juniper berries (we didn’t find these in Jakarta so we skipped them)

1/2 cup black peppercorns

Zest of 6 lemons, 6 limes and 6 oranges

Directions

1. Grind spices. Then mix all ingredients to make curing mix.

2. Score the fish – with the filet in front of you, make 1/2 inch deep cuts about 2 inches apart, perpendicular to the long side of the filet.(Make sure all scales all been removed) 3. Put half of the curing mix under the filet (on a sheet pan), with skin down, then cover with remaining curing mix.

4. Let filet cure in a refrigerator for 2-3 days. When ready, remove the filet from the cure mix, rinse with water, then cut thin slices at an angle, starting from the tail end.

3 Days Later….

Give it a try! Trust me, you won’t go back to the store-bought type!