Gravlax

December mornings dawn dewy and golden in southern California. This is my second winter holiday season in the land of endless sun, and I must admit both that it took some getting used to and that I am getting used to it. Southern California holidays don’t offer snowy scenery or big city bustle, but they are, indeed, merry and bright. After a low-key Thanksgiving at which we keenly missed the family of friends that would have been gathering in our apartment in Astoria, our holiday season began in the Santa Ynez Valley. We holed up there for a few days rest and relaxation with the area’s famous food and wine, but it turned out to be the ideal spot to welcome the holiday season. The hotel was abustle with getting the property ready for Christmas, which lent a cherry atmosphere without feeling forced or rushed. For years, we have supported Small Business Saturday. This year on that day, we found ourselves in Solvang, California. Every business in this small town seemed to be gathering the benefits of SMS, and we were glad to be there to contribute at our favorite breakfast spot, toy store, food and wine shop, and, of course, independent bookstore.

Back in LA, the holiday season has proceeded with fun and activity, absent the antic edge it often displayed in New York City. We were at The Abbey the afternoon they hoisted the towering Christmas tree into place and cheered on as go-go boys decorated the tree. The Abbey is one of the touchstones of gay life in Los Angeles; perhaps during the holidays that takes on dimensions of enhanced importance. Weekly we check in for cucumber martinis, burgers, and comradeship, to be followed by a walk along the Boystown business district. The holidays are dressed in red velvet and golden lights in West Hollywood, and it makes for a celebratory atmosphere indeed.

 

I’m getting used to Los Angeles, even learning to love it, but I have to admit that I have times of missing Christmas in Astoria. I’ve written numerous columns from the home office we worked so hard to organize in that apartment, watching from my writer’s window both as snow fell and as it refused to fall. Downtown Astoria is colorful and cheery during the holidays; a crossroads of urban hip and small town closeness. The tree vendors have set up shop along the boulevard, which has been strung with lights in an old-fashioned tradition that today’s malls emulate but whose charm they never capture.

 

We celebrated over twenty Christmases in New York City, and over that time, our own traditions evolved. Christmas is about tradition but every family’s circumstances evolve, and our own circumstances have taken us from those yearly festivities in the chill northeast to brand new ones in sunny SoCal. We have had to change some traditions, reinvent others, and welcome new ones as we start deeply settling into Los Angeles living.

 

The change has not been all bad. Space is always an issue in New York City, and even though our apartment in Astoria was large by NYC standards it was always a bit crowded when decorated for the holidays. In our spacious apartment in Los Angeles, we were able to install not one but two Christmas trees. Both the living room and the home office front the patio and are visible from the street, so we positioned the trees to be viewed by passers by. The living room tree is decorated with the collected memories of twenty years of amassing ornaments, offset by warm white lights, while the home office tree is trimmed with mercury glass ornaments, spied through a window framed with golden lights. A poinsettia, gift of a neighbor in the southern California tradition, waits by the door, red brachts at attention to remind us to be merry.

 

Some traditions we have to work at maintaining. One such is our traditional Christmas morning breakfast, which is just about as New York City as you can get: we have bagels and lox. This evolved because one year I had to work Christmas Eve, which of course evolved into working late. By the time I emerged from the office, the only place open to pick up something for the next morning’s breakfast was a Jewish deli. I got bagels and lox, and one of our private holiday traditions was born. Anyone who’s ever been to a New York City deli, coffee shop or diner will recognize the breadth and heft of a “bagel all the way,” which is a bagel toasted and served with a schmear, lox and red onions. At the Neptune Diner in Astoria, they extended this to include razor thin slices of cucumber, a scattering of mixed olives, a smattering of briny capers. For years, the Neptune’s interpretation of a bagel all the way was the inspiration for how we served our Christmas morning bagel breakfast.

 

Bagels are not impossible to come by in the land of carb counting, but it took some doing to isolate good bagels in Los Angeles. Los Angeles bagels are smaller than New York City bagels but then so is your average hubcap or Frisbee. Western Bagel came through with flavorful, perfectly textured bagels that toast to golden crispness. Plus a true treasure awaits in the refrigerated case: cucumber-dill cream cheese, somehow airy and substantial at once, and the perfect foil for the toasty bagel.

 

For years, we had smoked salmon cut by hand by the fishmonger at Balducci’s, but when that venerable Greenwich Village institution shuttered, good lox required traipsing to the Lower East Side. As the child of Osages, I should know how to cure fish, so I vowed to learn how to make lox, and I did. It turns out that easiest to prepare without a smokehouse is also our household favorite: gravlax. Gravlax is the Scandinavian dish that results from curing salmon with sugar, salt and dill. The “laks” that results is light and flavorful, without the heavy oiliness that smoked salmon can display. Sliced thin and served with fresh dill, it is the perfect centerpiece for a bagel breakfast spread that also includes cream cheese flavored with cool cucumber, razor-thin slices of red onion, spritely capers, and fresh dill.

 

Gravlax

Tell the fishmonger that you want salmon boned and skinned for gravlax. They should reward you with a slab of their finest fish, which should smell clean and succulent while evidencing no off smell or visible black, brown or yellow discoloration.

For the gravlax

1 side fresh salmon, boned and skinned

½ cup vodka, Kummel or Aquavit
2/3 cup kosher salt

½ cup granulated sugar

1 head fresh dill

Freshly ground black pepper

 

For the breakfast

2 – 4 bagels

1 8-ounce brick cream cheese

¼ cup whole milk

2 cucumbers

2 scallions

1 small red onion

1 small jar Spanish capers

1 head fresh dill

 

One week before serving

1. Unwrap the salmon and pat dry with paper towels as needed. Safely use a sharp paring knife to score the salmon in a criss-cross pattern on both sides.
2. Place the salmon in a glass 9 x 12 cake pan. If it is not sized to lay flat, trim the short edges so that the side lays flat, and distribute the smaller pieces around the empty spaces in the dish.
3. Gently pour the vodka, Kummel or Aquavit onto the salmon. Use all of the liquor, letting excess settle into the dish. Gently shake the dish to be sure the liquor is well-distributed, including underneath the salmon.
4. Cover the dish with a double-layer of plastic wrap and refrigerate the salmon, undisturbed for 24 hours.

24 hours after marinating

1. Remove the dish containing the salmon from the refrigerator.
2. Use tongs to remove the marinated salmon from the dish and to place the marinated salmon onto a platter large enough to accommodate the salmon. Most of the liquor should have been absorbed by the salmon, so the salmon should be slightly wet.
3. Generously sprinkle both sides of the marinated salmon with freshly ground black pepper.
4. Lay the head of dill onto a clean cutting board devoted to vegetables and herbs. Use a sharp knife to cut across the fronds and stems of the dill to produce a large pile of chopped herb.
5. Measure the salt and sugar into a mixing bowl. Add all of the chopped herb to the sugar-salt mixture. Use a wire whisk to mix the sugar, salt and dill together.
6. Wipe out the glass pan.
7. Measure half of the sugar-salt mixture into the pan. Shake the pan to distribute the mixture evenly.
8. Gently reposition the peppered salmon onto the salt-sugar-herb rub. Make certain that the salmon lies flat, and distribute smaller pieces if any around the empty spaces in the dish.
9. Add the remaining salt-sugar-herb rub to the top half of the salmon. Use your hands or a silicon spatula to make sure that all of the surface of the salmon is covered with the rub.
10. Place a sheet of waxed paper large enough to cover the salmon on top of the salmon.
11. Place pie weights or canned goods on the wax paper in order to weigh the fish down.
12. Cover the weighted pan with a double layer of plastic wrap.
13. Place the weighted pan in the refrigerator. Allow to cure, undisturbed, a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 7 days.

Slice the gravlax

1. After 5 – 7 days have passed, remove the pan containing the cured gravlax from the refrigerator. Unwrap the gravlax. The gravlax should be bright pink and very fragrant.
2. Place a clean tea towel lengthways on the counter. Place a clean cutting board devoted to seafood on the towel.
3. Gently place the gravlax on the cutting board. Use paper towels to blot away excessive cure, but it is desirable for some of the cure to remain.
4. Safely use a large sharp kitchen knife to slice across the grain of the gravlax to form thin slices. Arrange the slices on a serving plate as you go.
5. Once you have sliced the gravlax, cover with a loose layer of plastic wrap. Use within a few hours or refrigerate covered until ready to use.

Assemble and serve the breakfast

1. Open the cream cheese and place into a medium bowl to soften.
2. Place several drops vegetable cleanser in your palm. Rub the cucumbers with the cleanser and rinse the cucumbers under cool water until they feel clean.
3. Use the knife to cut away and discard the stem and blossom ends of the cucumbers. Use a peeler to remove and discard all of the peel from the remaining cucumber so that no green peel remains. Use the knife to cut the cucumber in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out the cucumber seeds and pulp. Set aside the seeds and pulp to infuse vodka.
4. Place a box grater over a colander. Use the large or medium holes on a box grater to grate the peeled, scooped cucumber halves into the colander. The cucumber will begin to express a lot of liquid so work carefully.
5. Hold the colander over the sink. Give the colander a good shake and leave the colander in the sink to drain.
6. Cut the remaining cucumber into coins approximately ¼” thick. Arrange the cut cucumber on a serving plate.
7. Peel the onion and safely use a sharp knife to remove the stem and root ends. Position a mandolin over the cutting board and place the cut end of the onion against the mandolin. Put on a pair of metal gloves. With gloved hands, use the guide to gently move the onion back and forth across the sharp cutting surface of the mandolin, until you have very thinly sliced about half of the red onion.
8. Remove the gloves and arrange the shaved red onion on the plate with the cut cucumber.
9. Use a silicon spatula to work the cream cheese until it is smooth and workable. Use a hand mixer set to medium to gently whip the cream cheese. Once the cream cheese begins to lighten in texture, add the milk in a thin stream to the cream cheese, mixing all the while.
10. Align the scallions side by side on a clean cutting board devoted to vegetables. Safely use a sharp paring knife to remove and discard the root ends of the scallions. Peel away and discard any papery outer skin from the scallions. Use the knife to slice down each scallion lengthwise to form halves. Cut across the halves to form tiny pieces of scallion.
11. Transfer the scallion to the bowl containing the whipped cream cheese. Give the colander a final shake. Add the drained, shredded cucumber to the bowl containing the whipped cream cheese.
12. Use the spatula to incorporate the cucumber and scallion into the whipped cream cheese. Transfer the whipped cream cheese to a serving bowl.
13. Open the jar of capers. Empty the jar into the colander. Give the colander a good shake. Transfer the capers to the plate containing the sliced cucumbers and shaved onion.
14. Remove the plastic wrap from the gravlax.
15. Use several sprigs fresh dill to garnish the cucumber-scallion cream cheese, the cucumber-onion plate, and the gravlax.
16. Serve with sliced bagels for toasting, for guests to assemble as they desire.