Gravad Max, Finland. Olympic Food Challenge

So from the Middle East to Africa and now back to Europe, I do like this challenge.

This stop on the world tour of Olympic Nations brings us to Finland in north Europe. they only won a few medals at the London games, none of them gold. they did a bit better in the Paralympics picking up 4 gold medals.

Looking for a recipe for this country was easy, finding ingredients for this country was not. Fresh blood cannot be taken out of abattoirs so blood pancakes were out and reindeer meat is a rare thing in this country so eating Rudolph was out as well.

What I eventually settled on was a dish that I had been planning to make for some time, Gravlax or if you are Finnish: graavilohi. This is basically salmon cured with copious amounts of dill, salt and sugar.

For such a basic recipe they are many versions of this around the Internet, so instead I went for a more trustworthy source in my River Cottage Fish book then I spotted the alternative recipe next to it for Gravad Max. This uses Mackerel fillets instead of Salmon and being more of a fan of the former I went for that instead.

Recipe is available here or buy the book, it is one of my favourites and is a highly detailed guide to all types of things swimming about in our seas and rivers.

The recipe is simplicity in itself, mix the cure, cover the fish, weigh it down, forget about it for a day or two and then eat.

I personally would recommend you get it going on Thursday/Friday night when you get home from work and come Saturday/Sunday morning you've got yourself a delicious, lazy but healthy breakfast.

I am also entering this for Herbs on Saturday, an excellent challenge hosted by Karen over at her excellent blog: Lavender and Lovage which promotes the use of fresh herbs.