Cured Salmon & Crab – A Beautiful Christmas Day Starter or January Healthy Detox Recipe

Cured Salmon & Crab Recipe

Cured Salmon & Crab – A Beautiful Christmas Day Starter Or January Healthy Detox Recipe

500g fresh salmon fillet (skin and fat removed, you can ask your fish monger to do this for you)

250g hand-picked white crab meat

2 spring onions

2 red chili

50g chives

25ml olive oil

Curing mix for salmon

250g table salt

250g caster sugar

1 star anise

Zest 1 lemon

1 red chili, deseeded

Using at least a 2” deep plastic container with a lid, mix all of the curing mix together and layer half of the mix at the bottom of the container.
Lay on the salmon and ensure it’s completely flat, now use the remaining curing mix to completely cover the salmon so that you can no longer see any flesh. Place the lid on the container and place this in the fridge for 15-18 hours.
To test the salmon to if it is cured enough, simply press the flesh, if it feels firm and a little dry, this is an indication it is cured fully. If it still feels soft and fleshy, cover the area you have uncovered and leave for longer.
When fully cured, remove the salmon from the cure and run under cold fresh water for 5 minutes to remove any cure that may have been left behind. Remove from the water and wrap in a tea towel to dry.
Pick through your crab meat to ensure there are no pieces of shell left in there, season with a touch of sea salt, 2 twists of black pepper and juice of half a lemon, set aside.
Finely slice the spring onion and chili on an angle. Take care with the chili not to include the seeds.
Unwrap the salmon and slice as thin or as thickly as you like. Arrange on the plate and cover with the crabmeat, again using as much or as little as you like. Sprinkle on the chopped chives, chili and spring onion, drizzle a little olive oil and enjoy with some freshly baked French stick.

Recipe from Wayne Sullivan, the Head Chef at the Kings Head, in Cirencester.

A Cotswold chef though and through, Wayne is well-known in the area as a Consultant Chef having worked with the teams at Calcot Manor, The Wesley House, Hotel Du Vin in Cheltenham and at The Bell at Sapperton and previously at Marcus Wareing’s Petrus and at The Hotel Wheatleigh in Massachusetts, USA.

The Kings Head Hotel located in the heart of Cirencester town re-opened in September 2014 as a modern, elegant hotel offering 45 stylish bedrooms, an exceptional wine list and an all day dining option offering the very best of modern British food. The entire hotel has undergone an extensive restoration programme to address decades of neglect to the historic fabric.

kingshead-hotel.co.uk

For more: read our hotel and restaurant reviews of Windsor, Winchester and Cambridge.