Grav Lox

The grav lax I made was from a food network recipe that I found through google. I followed the recipie with a few departures that I shall note.

It said to start with a 2lb side fillet of salmon with the skin on. I had picked up a filet with the skin off. I decided not to worry about that too much. It also called for quite a lot of fresh dill, 3/4 of a cup once chopped up. I couldn't find any so I used dried dill and that seemed to work just fine. The preparation consisted of checking for bones (I couldn't find any) and washing and then pat it dry with some paper toweling.

I cut the fish in half across the length so I had two roughly 1 pound rectangular pieces. Putting on the dill in a even layer completely covering the fish. Then I sprinkled the fish with vodka. I think this was to kill off germs more than to add flavor and to stick the dill to the fish a bit. Previous to this I mixed up a cup of salt, a cup of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of fresh cracked white pepper. With the fish on a long strip of plastic wrap I poured the salt on the fish, then turned the two faces to each other. I also put a touch of the mixture on the backside as I wrapped up the fish. It was difficult to keep the sugar and salt between the two pieces as I wrapped the fish pieces in another layer of wrap.

I put my package in a glass pan then I put another glass pan on top of it with several wine and soda bottles on top. I'd estimate the total weight at about 5-8 pounds. Into the fridge with the set up for 12 hours. I started it in the evening so that 12 hours would fall in the morning. I kept turning it ever 12 hours for two days in total. The recipe said that two days was good and in no case should it stay in for longer than 3 days. It also says that if washed and then wrapped up again it will keep for several days. That makes sense, but I didn't try it. I preferred to time the fish being done in time for the party so I could just take it out, wash it off, and cut it up into thin slices with a sharp knife.

EDIT: Since this first time I've found a better platic wrap technique. I put a short peice across the pan and then a longer length down the pan, three times as long as one of the fish pieces. I then put down just a little cure mixture in the middle and center the first piece of fish on the wrap after having given it a rub with the vodka. Sprinkle on the dill pour almost all the cure on top. Then rub the other piece with vodka and sprinkle with dill and put it dill side down on top of the cure pile. Pull in one side and then the other of the long strip of plastic wrap. THen the short piece can pull in the sides without spilling as much of the cure. Wrap once more and you're ready to put it in the fridge with the weights.

2003 DASFA Christmas Partyreport

I'm rather happy with how the party came out. Though mildly annoyed with myself for forgetting a number of things. First among them is that I forgot to call my friends to see if they needed rides or directions. Or rather I did call and leave messages, but they didn't call at Rose & Dave's.

Also I forgot my camera to take pictures of the proceedings. It would have been nice to have some pictures of the wonderful crowd.

I was late in picking up Amanda, because of my looking for the camera and the time I took in the shower. But eibii was cool about it. Big relief for me. I'm going to try to make sure that next time I pick her up on time.

So we arrived at the Christmas Open House at about ten minutes until four. There was not as much chatting at this point, more eating. Since I only meet most of Rose's Art Museum friends at the Christmas party once a year and Amanda has never met them before. I said hi to Maya and I showed off the Red Room to Amanda. I told my version of Little Red Ridding Hood to the sprout up in the room.

A while latter the candy cane cheesecake was served out. It was really excellent and so were the oriental chicken wings. I'm going to have to get the recipe from Rose. I always love adding another dish to my wide repertoire. Lots of chatting and the party gradually got really busy. I would say the peak was at about the cross over time of 7pm when the Open House guests were still lingering and the DASFA Christmas Orgy guests were starting to arrive. For a while we were dancing around each other and exchanging greetings with many old and new friends. I retreated upstairs to the red room frequently. I noticed Dave often came up to his bed to get away from the crowd as well. I’m not shy like him, but I do have to take breaks. Plus I don't want to get in the way and I like a quieter room where I can listen to and talk more easily. I'll remember this if I ever have the chance to design a house with parties in mind. Smaller nooks to have intimate conversations are a terribly good idea.

Martin showed up with Alex, a new guy interested in DASFA from the internet. He sent me an instant message about two weeks before the party out of nowhere. He seemed cool so I took a chance and invited him. I was glad I did, because though he was shy he gradually got into the party.

Sometime after 8pm I started in on the grav lox project. Washing it off and then putting it in the freezer so I could slice it up easily. Then back up to the Red Room with a tour around to talk to some people. About 20 minutes later I came back down and started slicing. It was disappearing from the cutting board as fast as I could cut for about the first half of the first piece. Then I toured around with it and basking in complements from the people who tired it.

About this time Jane sized the liquor filled chocolates for the Red Room. We all went up to relax in the decadent atmosphere. We played a sort of variation of in the sack where each person asked a question of the group and it went around the circle answering it. I think that Alex finally started to get into the party at this point since he ended up in the circle making and answering questions. I think he started to see us as similar to him, though mostly older, at that point.

After the questions had been around the whole circle I went back down to slice up the second side of grav lox. It seems that the red room somewhat broke up after that. I think it was getting to be about 10pm, maybe eleven. The party downstairs had gotten a lot quieter. DASFA has gradually become more of an early evening group.

Jane headed home and for a while the remaining fans chatted mainly in the dinning room. Somehow Alex got onto asking questions about radiation and nuclear weapons. I was answering things and getting corrections from mad scientists like Paul. The evening ended with me showing one of the extras on the Two Towers special edition, the Gollum acceptance speech on the MTV awards. Round about 1230pm I took Amanda home and then went home myself.