Wow, Smoke Ninja, you a truly blessed. It’s not everyday we can get such a gem considering most stuff in the market these days include moisture retaining agents in the form of phosphates.
There is so much you can do but I would hot smoke one side to enjoy today and/or tomorrow and then make lox with the other filet. Thirdeye’s dealio is pretty spot on and will yield excellent results although a little labor over a longer time in days for the lox. One slight recipe difference from our family’s Eastern European roots would be that gravlox has no smoke and nova lox or just lox is cold smoked. Mom did the gravlox, Dad did the smoke or grilling.
Both start out the same way - the dry cure with salt and sugar wrapped in plastic but, it gets wet pretty quick as the moisture is drawn out. Whatever spices you add are up to you. You can go all the way on both with just sugar and salt and will have great results. Gravlox for us always has fresh dill in the cure.
The hot smoke:
Dry cure two to three hours and then rinse but don’t rinse too much as you will draw out the little bit of cure you have going. Slap it on a soaked cedar plank or not skin down. Sometimes it goes right on the kettle with nothing else or my other ways include yellow mustard rub topped with brown sugar or your favorite BBQ rub, dill and lemon, teriyaki and pineapple or, just black pepper or BBQ rub. Whatever you want but with fish that fresh I would go with just the salt and sugar...prepare an indirect fire on the kettle and when nice and hot toss on some apple or alder flavor chunks. Put the filet on the side with no coal and cover with vents half open. Your looking for about 350 degrees but I’ve done it so much I never check the temp. 20 to 30 minutes is usually enough but with a filet as big as yours your are looking at around 30 minutes. Be careful not to overcook! You want it barely done. Enjoy!
For the lox, prepare per Thirdeye or any lox/gravlox method and then cold smoke. After the cure when you basically have gravlox, enjoy or cold smoke for added flavor. We always rub a little oil over the entire filet to enhance the appearance and oilliness of the fish. It’s very important to not exceed 80 degrees on the cold smoke. You absolutely positively do not want to cook the fish! It’s already done. An hour or two of cold smoke is enough. I take my Big Chief hot smoke cabinet and fill an empty soup can with the lid still partially attached with flavor chips. Then, I stick the hot end of a soldering iron into the can layed on it’s side. Put that under the fish and close up the cabinet for a little bit. Enjoy your catch...
