Now that it is pink salmon season, I am always on the look out for recipes with interesting seasonings, as pink salmon can be a little bland. Add a few herbs and spices, and you’ll have a delicious dish. Here is a recipe which can be made with any type of salmon, but if you are going for a wild fish, pinks are in season…and they’re sustainable!

Blackcurrent Cured Salmon with Fennel and Blackcurrant Relish

This recipe does take a couple of days to prepare.

For the salmon
1.2kg (2lb 12oz) tail piece of salmon in two halves, filleted but skin left on
6 tbsp dry vermouth
2 tbsp crème de cassis
125g (4½oz) granulated sugar
100g (3½oz) coarse sea salt
2 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
large bunch of dill, roughly chopped
350g (12oz) blackcurrants, removed from their stalks and washed
sour cream, to serve

For the relish
4 tbsp rice-wine vinegar
4 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp olive oil (not extra virgin)
¼ tsp Dijon mustard
2 small fennel bulbs or 1 large
½ small red onion
200g (7oz) blackcurrants, removed from their stalks and washed
1½ tbsp chopped dill

Check the salmon for any bones your fishmonger might have missed (rubbing your hand along the flesh is the best way to find them). Remove any you find with tweezers. Line a dish big enough to hold the salmon with a double layer of foil (I usually use a roasting-tin). Put one of the pieces of salmon in, skin down. Rub it all over with half the vermouth and cassis. Mix the sugar, salt, pepper, dill and blackcurrants together in a bowl and spread it over the salmon. Press down so that the blackcurrants pop and release their juices. Pour on the rest of the vermouth and cassis and put the other piece of salmon (skin up) on top. Pull the foil up round the fish then put some weights on top (tins or jars or a heavy cutting-board, for example). Put this into the fridge and leave to marinate for two to three days, turning every so often. Liquid will seep out of the salmon in this time – just pour it off. Remove the foil and scrape the cure off both pieces of fish.

To make the relish mix the vinegar with the sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the oil and mustard, stir and set aside. Quarter the fennel and remove the tough outer leaves. Take off any little tufty bits, chop and retain. Remove the core from each section of fennel. Cut the rest into very thin slices. Cut the onion into wafer-thin slices too (on a mandolin if you have one). Gently toss the fennel, onion, blackcurrants and dill together with the dressing (adding any fennel tufts). Season with pepper and a little salt.

Cut the salmon into slices as you would smoked salmon (leaving the skin behind) and serve with the relish and a dollop of sour cream. Store the rest of the salmon in the fridge, wrapped in clean foil. It will keep for a week from the date you applied the cure.

Serves about 14

Recipe Source: Diana Henry in The Telegraph