Yes. Pepper fruit cured. I knew I wanted to use it for the way I thought the spicy seeds would cut the chewy fish and add aroma. My desire would be to cure white, local fish but this is a good place to begin.
And I’m glad to say it worked. Take some processed pepper fruit and combine it with sugar and salt which serve dual purposes of flavouring and preservation.
Fish works well. I’d love to try this with beef too, in a kilishi/ jerky style manner! I think peanuts and pepper fruit would make an awesome combo but that’s work for another day.
The rest really is easy – packaging the mix and combination and letting time do the necessary work of upgrading texture and flavour.
- Handful of pepperfruit, crushed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup sea salt
- 2 small salmon steaks - filleted, skinned, pin bones remove
- On a baking tray which can fit into your fridge, lay out a piece of clingfilm/plastic wrap, longer than the length of the fish. Then triple the plastic wrap to increase its strength, folding it back on itself to create a strong base. I couldn't find my plastic wrap so I used a ziploc
- Combine the pepper fruit with the sugar and sea salt, rubbing in well to ensure they are well combined but also to release some of the flavours I am sure would be latent if I din't massage the essence out.
- Make a bed for the fish by spreading out half of the sugar-salt-spice mixture in the ziploc in my current case or plastic wrap and place salmon steaks to rest. Top with the rest of the sugar-salt-spice mixture, rubbing it so the entire surface is covered.
- Cover with plastic wrap till a nice package is formed. Refrigerate for up to three days
- When ready, remove the salmon from the fridge. You'll notice it is swimming in a pool of thick, syrup which I discarded.
- Rinse the steaks under cold water to remove the cure then pat dry.
- Individually wrap in clingfilm and return to the deep freezer.
- When ready to serve, remove salmon from the deep freezer and let defrost in the fridge.
- Slice to your hearts content and enjoy how you like!
- Top Tip: be cautious with the salt, better under than over salted!