Hawaii’s twist on gravlax

You guys know how much I adore gravlax. I make Norwegian Gravlax all the time! (Recipe here.) When I read that lomi lomi salmon is Hawaii’s version of gravlax and a popular Christmas dish in Hawaii, I couldn’t wait to try it.

I did a ton of research on lomi lomi salmon and it is consistently four ingredients: salted (cured) salmon, tomatoes, green onions, and sweet onion. I wanted to keep it traditional for my Mele Kalikimaka Dinner, but lomi lomi salmon would be lovely with avocado.

Don’t be afraid of curing your own salmon. It’s really very simple. You just rub salt into fresh salmon and leave it in the fridge for two days. It’s not cured and ready to eat! So cool.

Lomi means to rub, squeeze, or massage. Part of the fun of this dish is squishing all of the ingredients together. The young chef in your life would love helping with this! I know I would have when I was young. I was nervous about so much raw onion in this dish because I very much dislike raw onion but the acid from the tomato completely mellows it out.

Lomi Lomi Salmon
1/2 pound fresh salmon filet
Hawaiian sea salt
2 tomatoes
3 green onions
1/2 sweet onion

1. Clean salmon filet and pat dry. Carefully slice off the skin and discard. Cover both sides of filet with Hawaiian sea salt and rub it in. Set the salmon in a shallow dish and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 days.
2. Unwrap the salmon, rinse the salt off, and soak the salmon in a bowl of cold water for an hour. Dice into small pieces.
3. Dice remaining ingredients. Toss salmon, tomatoes, and onions, and massage it all together to incorporate. Chill for a couple of hours, then serve.

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Aloha,

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