Favorite recipe of Germeringer restaurateur - the salmon is buried for Christmas

Created: 12/25/2021, 4:00 PM

From: Klaus Greif

Alfred Fastl presents his self-pickled salmon.

He has been preparing it for Christmas for 20 years.

© Peter Weber

Alfred Fastl and his wife have been running the Enoteca del Tufo in Germering for nine years.

The bistro was on Otto-Wagner-Straße for the first three years, and when the Kleiner Stachus was remodeled, it moved into the Sparkasse building.

Germering - In all these years Alfred Fastl has conjured up his personal favorite recipe for Christmas in the small bistro kitchen: a pickled gravlax.

The love for this dish even goes back to Fastl's pre-Germeringer times, says the passionate cook: "I saw this somewhere 20 years ago and decided to modify it and imitate it." Since then, there has been Alfred Fastl salmon every year.

Favorite recipe from Germering: The preparation

It's not particularly difficult to prepare, but it does take a while - the pickled salmon has to sit for 24 to 36 hours before it's done.

However, the recipe is difficult for two reasons.

On the one hand, the salmon must have a special quality.

Fastl swears by Irish bakka salmon, which he orders from the fishmonger.

It is not caught in the wild - "You can no longer afford it".

However, from his point of view, it meets the highest requirements.

The second difficulty is that Alfred Fastl cannot give any weight information for the preparation of the spice mixture with which the salmon is marinated: “I always do it by feeling.

You just have to try a little. "

When the five to six kilogram salmon has arrived and is on the kitchen worktop, it's time to fillet - you could have the fishmonger take care of that too.

But Fastl prefers to do it himself: “I just enjoy it,” he says.

But if you cook the recipe, you can also get a small and already finished piece of fillet.

The salmon fillet is slightly incised on the skin side at a distance of about two centimeters.

The fillet is then placed on a large aluminum foil with the skin side down.

Favorite recipe from Germering: the ingredients

For the stain, Fastl puts coriander seeds, mustard seeds, star anise and juniper in a plastic bag and pounds the mixture with a hammer.

For a salmon weighing one kilogram, other recipes recommend one tablespoon each.

Then mix this powder with sea salt, lemon and orange pepper, grated lemon peel and sugar.

This mixture is now spread over the fish.

Then the entire fillet is completely covered on all sides with dill.

Favorite recipe from Germering: the preparation

Now comes the most important part of Fastl's recipe - it's what turns the fish into a so-called gravlax.

Graved means “buried”.

And this is how it works in the modern kitchen: Fastl wraps the salmon like a roll in the aluminum foil on which it lies.

And very compact.

This is then weighted down from above and placed in the refrigerator.

After 24 hours at the earliest, the salmon is unwrapped, washed and garnished with a little dill and pink peppercorns.

Ready.

Favorite recipe from Germering: the right white wine

Alfred Fastl recommends the fish as a starter.

It goes well with a good white wine, Chardonnay or Custoza, and also a mustard sauce for dipping, which Fastl also makes itself.

Mix the Dijon and homemade mustard and season with fresh lemon, pepper, salt and dill, that's all you have to do.

If you have an appetite for the salmon but don't want to prepare it yourself, you should stop by Alfred Fastl.

On Christmas Eve, only the bistro's delicatessen is open in the mornings.

But after the holidays it is open again regularly - even on New Year's Eve.

And the demand for it is very high, says the restaurateur.

Incidentally, the 2G rule is checked very carefully in the bistro.

On weekends there is a special controller at the entrance.

On the whole, he gets along quite well with it, says Alfred Fastl.

But he is lucky that he has a very loyal clientele who keep the business going.

The whole thing is currently only worthwhile because he and his wife keep the shop running alone and have no personnel costs.

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