Whisky- and brown-sugar-cured salmon with apple and beetroot relish recipe

Cure your own salmon with whisky and brown sugar for a stunning Christmas centrepiece

Prep time: 30 minutes, plus marinating time

SERVES

10 to 12

INGREDIENTS

• 1.2kg tail piece of salmon in two halves, filleted, but skin left on

• 100ml whisky

• 100g soft light-brown sugar

• 100g sea-salt flakes

• 2 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper

• large bunch of dill, roughly chopped

• 1 large tart apple, peeled, cored and coarsely grated

For the relish

• 3 tart eating apples

• 1 red onion

• 1 small beetroot, cooked, skin slipped off

• 12 tbsp rice vinegar

• good squeeze of lemon juice

• 9 tbsp caster sugar

• 4 tbsp chopped dill

METHOD

1. Check the salmon for bones and remove with tweezers.

2. Line a dish or roasting-tray, large enough to hold the salmon, with a double layer of foil. Put one of the pieces of salmon, skin-side down, on top. Rub it all over with half the whisky. Mix the sugar, salt, pepper, dill and apple and spread it over the salmon.

3. Pour on the rest of the whisky and put the other piece of salmon, skin-side up, on top. Pull the foil up around the fish, then place a heavy board on top. Put in the refrigerator for two to three days, turning the fish over every so often. Pour off any liquid that seeps out. Remove the foil and scrape the cure off both pieces of salmon.

4. For the relish, halve and core the apples. Cut the flesh into matchsticks. Slice the onion wafer-thin, and the beetroot either into matchsticks or very thin slices. Mix the rice vinegar, lemon juice and caster sugar and stir until dissolved. Toss with the apple, beetroot, onion and dill. Serve with the salmon, sliced just as you would smoked salmon, leaving the skin behind. (Wrapped and stored in the refrigerator, the fish will keep for a week.)