Diary of a Secret Househusband: Homemade Lox
I know that from the contents of this blog, it must seem like I'm the cook of the household. And I suppose that this is true: I do the day-to-day cooking. But the CHEF of the household is my husband. He's the darling who spent days mastering the art of truffle-making to make me artisan chocolates for Valentine's Day, the loon who invited a billion of his friends over for a make-your-own pasta party (there was pasta hanging out to dry over his entire apartment), and the guy who, this weekend, made lox.
For quite a long time, he's been complaining about the poor quality of the lox and smoked salmon we've been getting lately. Finally, he got fed up and decided to make his own. Technically, he made gravlax, as the salmon is merely cured, not smoked. All it took was some good quality salmon from Whole Foods (still cheaper than good lox); a sugar, salt, and water brine; and a little patience (the salmon has to cure for about 2 days).
Let me just admit that I am not a huge fan of lox. It's my least Jewish characteristic. (Though I don't like pickles either, so I'm totally goying myself out here.) But even I thought this lox was really good: fresh, delicate, not at all fishy. Don't tell him, but I was kind of impressed.
If you're intrigued about the process of curing your own gravlax, my husband used the recipe available here. Have you ever made your own lox? Are you a lox and sesame bagel fan? Or a super goyish chocolate chip bagel with butter fan like me?
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10 comments:
I've never tried lox, mainly because I had a weird aversion to fish up until the last few years, but my dad used to eat it all the time when I was a kid. Maybe I should try it now that fish and I are cool again. I do love a bagel with some good strawberry cream cheese though!
I love lox! I grew up on it, as my family got bagels, cream cheese and lox every Sunday :) One time my dad and I went to our bagel store (Goldberg's in good ol' Fort Lee, NJ) and there was this new guy working there. He had no idea how much lox to give us and ended up giving us like...5lbs for WAY too little money. That was a good day....
Wow! That looks SOOOO good....
Wow this looks amazing - one of my favorite foods in the whole world is lox! Love all the photos :)
@ Allie: I'd trade you your latkes for lox any day! Would you believe I haven't had strawberry cream cheese? I would like some now. On a toasted chocolate chip bagel.
@ BigAppleNosh: I always knew you'd make just as good of an Asian Jew as me, if not better!
@ Geek in Heels: It wasn't half bad!
@ Katherine: Lady, you are getting married this weekend. How do you have time to read this?!!! Post me more Jose photos stat.
i'm so impressed! looks very tasty. i can eat about half a bagel with lox and cream cheese before i hit my limit.
Oh wow! Lox and cream cheese on a bagel is one of my absolute favorite meals (with some tomatoes, red onions and capers, of course). I'm very impressed you guys made gravlax yourself, and now I want to try it too!
wow wow wow! I'm not a lox fan... but Mr. M is just an east coast boy who needs it every now and then! Heck, he gets it on pizza! I think I'm going to have to share this with him...
totally impressed by your husband's gravlax skills! we loooove ourselves a lox bagel w/cream cheese, onion, and capers around here!
@ lavenderpug: I'm with you. I can stand about two bites of lox, even very very good lox.
@ Megan: You should! It was really easy. He had a little trouble cutting it beautifully thin, but our aunt said that if you cure it for 3-4 days instead of a mere 2, the fish should slice super easily.
@ kimberly michelle: We should go out for brunch and let the boys eat lox while we do mimosas.
@ lobster: We add tomatoes too! Because we're greedy like that.
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