Trout Gravalax Recipe - with a local touch

A successful afternoon fishing yesterday at Derwent Reservoir netted some beautiful early season blue trout. Obviously as fresh as you can get but in beautiful condition. The Derwent reservoir is now thankfully full to the brim after being alarmingly empty at the end of the long hot summer of 2025.

A great way to preserve trout (or salmon or other oily fish) is to cure in the Scandinavian style know as Gravalax. Its simple and makes the fillets go a long way - a few slices with good bread and butter makes for a lovely starter.

Trout Gravalax in preparation. A simple cure of salt and sugar with pounded Barberries grown on our plot

But how to keep the local and sustainable theme going? In this recipe I have used barberries grown on my plot in place of lemon. The small fruit picked from the berberis in late Autumn are dried and then keep very well. Whizzed up into a powder they have a sharp acidic taste along with a background fruit - rather like Sumac (which is also grown in many gardens in the UK).

Recipe

Depending on the weight of the trout (or salmon fillets you are using) adjust the following accordingly. I was curing the two fillets from a trout weighing approximately 750g).

Trout or salmon fillets skin on with the pin bones removed (these are the small bones which are left after the fillets are remved from the back bone - a pair of tweezers is handy)
100 grams medium coarse sae salt
100 grams sugar (I used 25% light brown sugar in the mix)
The chopped stalks and some leaf from a bunch of coriander (dill would be more traditional)
25 grams dried barberries ground fine (you can substitute lemon zest or any mixture of spices you have such as cloves, star anise ….).
A small grind of black pepper (if I had Szechuan pepper available also grown on my plot I would have used that!).
Bunch of dill (or other similar herbs).

Method

Mix the cure ingredients together. Sprinke a little of the mix onto a sheet of cling film. Then lay the first fillet on top (skin side down) and press on a good quantity of the cure mix before laying the second fillet on top (like you were reforming the original fish and packing the remaining cure around).

Leave for 2-3 days in the fridge depending in the thickness of the fillets. If a lot of liquid is formed after a day I have found it useful to drain this off.
The longer the time left the stronger the cure. I favour a shorter time to reduce the end saltiness. Remove from the fridge and scrape off the remaining salt cure and then wash the fillets thoroughly. (this ensure the result is not too salty). Dry well and then lay back onto clean cling film and press in finely chopped green herbs of your choice. Dill is traditional but it can be mixed with parsley. Im going to use coriander for a variation and to work with the flavour of the barberries.

After another day in the fridge you can carve the fillets as you would for say smoked salmon. Brilliant matched with a Dijon style sauce but keeping thing local I favour a fresh horseradish sauce made from the abundant horseradish on the plot.

Platters of salmon gravalax prepared for a PJ taste catered event