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Smoked Salmon Grilled Cheese


  • Author: Kristin Butterworth
  • Yield: Serves 8

Ingredients

Scale

Cold-Smoked Salmon

  • 2 to 3 lb fresh salmon
  • 1 ½ cups kosher salt
  • 2 tbsp horseradish
  • 1 ½ cups brown sugar

Sourdough Bread

  • 1 cup sourdough starter
  • 1 ½ cups lukewarm water
  • 1 to 2 tsp instant yeast
  • 2 ½ tsp salt
  • 5 cups AP flour

Pickled Onions

  • ½ cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 red onion, thinly sliced

Horseradish Vinaigrette

  • 1 tbsp horseradish
  • 1 garlic clove, small dice
  • ½ shallow, small dice
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • ¼ cup salad oil
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cold-Smoked Salmon

  1. Run your fingers over the flesh side of the salmon fillets, feeling for the sharp ends of pin bones. Pull out any you find with fish tweezers.
  2. To make the cure, combine the salt, horseradish and brown sugar in a mixing bowl and mix with your fingers.
  3. Spread 1/3 of the cure over the bottom of a shallow dish or sheet tray just large enough to hold the fish. Lay the salmon fillets on top of the cure. (The cure should extend ½-inch beyond the edges of the fish on each side.) Spread the remaining cure on top so it covers the fish completely.
  4. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and cure the fish in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours.
  5. Gently rinse the cure off the salmon under cold running water. Place the salmon in a large bowl with cold water to cover by 3 inches. Soak for 30 minutes then drain well.
  6. Blot the salmon dry on both sides with paper towels. Arrange it skin-side down on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Let the salmon dry, uncovered, in the refrigerator until it feels tacky, about 4 hours or overnight. It is very important that the salmon be very dry before smoking.
  7. Set up your smoker for cold smoking following the manufacturer’s instructions. Cold-smoke the salmon until the exterior is bronzed with smoke and the salmon feels semi-firm and leathery, about 12 hours.

Sourdough Bread

  1. Mix everything together and then knead it to make a soft, smooth dough. It may be soft and slightly sticky, but you should be able to round it into a ball.
  2. Allow the dough to rise in a lightly greased bowl or covered container until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes. Once it has doubled, divide the dough into 2 pieces.
  3. At this point shape the dough into oval loaves and place them on lightly greased, parchment-lined baking sheets. Again, let them rise until puffy, about an hour, score whatever design you’d like on the top – typically we just do two evenly spaced lines and then place in a preheated 425-degree oven.
  4. Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it is golden brown and the internal temperature is 200 degrees. Remove the bread from the oven and cool on a rack.
  5. The bread will last at room temperature up to 5 days.

Pickled Onions

  1. Whisk together first 3 ingredients and water in a small bowl until sugar and salt dissolve. Place onion in the small, sealable container and pour vinegar mixture over and let sit refrigerated overnight.

Horseradish Vinaigrette

  1. In a blender, combine all the ingredients and blend until completely smooth and emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper.