Seedy Rye Flatbread with Spruce Tip Gravlax, Cremé Fraiche and Red Onion

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

I love a recipe that takes days to prepare. Often I get just as much enjoyment from the process of preparing the food as I do eating it. Especially when the perfume of these spruce tips hit my nose and I get to run my knife through their tender crispness, releasing a citrus woodsy scent that is intoxicating. Now, the work itself is not lengthy, nor difficult, but the time spent anticipating the taste builds the excitement and seems a fitting way to honor ingredients like salmon and spruce tips. 

Spruce tips are one of my favorite springtime wild ingredients. The bright citron green color tips are the new growth of the season and are full of vitamin C, they are also antiseptic and antimicrobial. This nutritional boost is just what is needed to help shake off the last bits of winter still clinging to the bones. Their flavor is a bit citrusy with a hit of sour with a gentle woodsy note that you expect from a tender tree bough. That piney bright flavor is well suited for the natural sweetness of the salmon. Spruce tips are also excellent chopped up and included in salads, used as a garnish, turned into a natural soda or syrup, or used in baked goods.

Most spruce, fir or pine tips can be used here but as in all foraging, be sure you’ve identified your tree with 100% certainty, it’s removed from spraying and other potential toxins, and that you harvest only what you need. It’s also a good idea to harvest from different parts of the tree so growth isn’t stunted. If spruce or fir tips can’t be found you can use dill as a substitute. 

This salmon comes from my friend Mark from Eva’s Wild. Mark is passionate about protecting the salmon and the fisheries in Bristol Bay. Check out his site and his films (The Breach and The Wild) he has made about making sure we keep these waters clean and clear for the salmon.

You can also check out a recent interview I did with Mark on the Save What you Love podcast.

This recipe comes from my new cookbook, Rooted Kitchen.

Seedy Rye Flatbread with Spruce Tip Gravlax, Cremé Fraiche and Red Onion

Serves 4

Seedy Rye Flatbread 

1/2 cup / 70 grams rye flour

1/4 cup / 35 grams all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons rolled oats

2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons grams sesame seeds

1 tablespoon flax seeds

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup water

1 egg white, lightly beaten (for a wash)

Flake salt

Salmon Gravlax (recipe below)

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup / 50 grams crème fraiche

1/4 cup / 2 grams chopped fresh dill

Flake salt

For the Rye cracker

Preheat oven to 300*F. 

In a medium bowl combine the rye and all purpose flours, baking powder, rolled oats, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and flax seeds and the kosher salt. Whisk well to combine.

In a small bowl add the honey, olive oil, and water. Whisk well to combine.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until a slightly sticky but cohesive dough forms. 

Roll the dough as thin as possible between two pieces of parchment paper. Transfer the rolled out flatbread to a baking sheet, brush with egg white and sprinkle with a couple of pinches of flake salt. Bake the cracker until deeply golden throughout and completely dried out, about 25 to 30 minutes. You may need to let the flatbread cool slightly, then carefully flip and bake for another 5 minutes. Leave on the baking sheet to cool for at least 15 minutes. If the cracker doesn’t snap after they cool, return to a preheated oven to dry out for another 5 minutes or so.

To assemble the flatbread

On the flatbread spread 1/2 cup crème fraiche all over. Scatter thinly sliced salmon gravlax on top then finish with the red onion, fresh dill and flake salt. Enjoy straightaway. 

Spruce Tip Gravlax

1 1/2 cups /115 grams finely chopped spruce tips

1/3 cup / 70 gram kosher salt

1/3 cup / 60 grams granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground mustard seed

1 teaspoon fennel seed

Freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 pounds salmon filet

In a medium bowl combine the spruce tips, kosher salt, sugar, ground mustard seed, fennel seed and black pepper. Mix well to combine.

Lay the salmon filet on a wire rack over a sheet pan with the skin side down. Press the spruce tip mixture onto the salmon, cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap then refrigerate for 36 to 48 hours depending on how you like the cure. I like to cover the fish with another sheet pan and place some weight on the top to help draw out some of the moisture. The longer the fish sits the more firm it will become. Every 12 to 24 hours check on the fish.

Once cured, gently rinse the spruce tip cure off the salmon with cool water then thinly slice. 

Keep any unused gravlax in the fridge, well sealed, for up to 2 weeks.