Honey Roast Smoked Salmon with Crispy Potato Cakes and Asparagus Curls
As seen on RTE Television – Donal Skehan ‘Kitchen Hero – Donal’s Irish Feast‘
Donal’s version of Eggs Benedict which is a poached egg served on a crispy potato cake that gets baked in the oven slice of brioche and a warm butter sauce, which is much lighter than Hollandaise. It is also fantastic served with slices of hand carved cooked ham or crispy bacon.
Ingredients
225g Connemara Smokehouse Honey Roast Smoked Salmon, broken into large flakes (skin discarded)
For the Crispy Potato Cakes 
50g butter
2 large waxy potatoes, peeled
Salt and pepper
For the Poached Eggs
1 tblsp white wine vinegar
8 eggs
For the Beure Noissette
75g butter, diced (at room temperature)
2 tsp snipped fresh chives
For the Asparagus Curls
4 asparagus spears, trimmed
1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
First make the crispy potato cakes. Melt the butter and use a little to grease a standard Yorkshire pudding tin.
Grate the potatoes and in a tea towel squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Place the potatoes in a bowl and pour over the rest of the melted butter. Season to taste and mix until well combined. Using two forks, divide the mixture among the Yorkshire pudding moulds, gently pressing it in. Bake for 20- 25 minutes or until crisp and golden brown, flipping halfway through.
Meanwhile, heat a large sauté pan with water. Add the white wine vinegar and salt then bring to the boil. Break each egg into the water where it is bubbling, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 3 minutes, until the eggs are just cooked through but the yolks are still soft. Remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into a bowl of iced water.
When ready to serve, make the asparagus curls. Using a potato peeler, pare the asparagus into curls and place in a bowl. Toss in the olive oil to lightly coat and season with salt and some lemon juice.
To make the butter sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Continue to cook over a medium high heat until it turns a nutty golden brown. Whisk in the lemon juice and chives and serve over the top of the salmon.
Return the sauté pan filled with water to the boil. Add the poached eggs and cook for 1 minute to warm through.
Run a small palette knife around each crispy potato cake to loosen them and put one on to each warmed plate. Arrange the smoked salmon flakes on top. Drain the poached eggs briefly on kitchen paper and then place one on each serving. Spoon over the beure noissette and garnish with a good grinding of black pepper. Finish with the asparagus curls and serve straight away.
Also served on the night with Connemara Smokehouse dish…
Braised Connemara Lamb Shanks with Nettle Mash
Ingredients
- 8 Connemara Hill lamb shanks (about 475g each)
- 50g plain flour
- 2 tblsp sunflower oil
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 375ml dry white wine
- 750ml chicken stock
- 4 canned anchovy fillets, finely chopped
- 1 tblsp tomato purée
- 2 tblsp roughly chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
For the Persillade
- 4 tblsp finely chopped fresh mint
- 2 tblsp finely chopped garlic
- 2 tblsp finely grated lemon rind
- 2 canned anchovy fillets, finely chopped
- Small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
- For the Nettle Mash
- 1.2kg floury potatoes, peeled and halved or quartered if large
- 75g butter
- 100ml milk
- 50 tender young leaves, washed well and roughly chopped
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Place a really large casserole pan on a high heat. Season the lamb shanks and toss them in the flour to coat. Add the oil to the pan and working in batches, sear the lamb shanks all over until golden brown, transferring them to a large plate as you go.
- Next, reduce the heat to medium and add the onions, celery and carrots to the pan. Sauté for 6-8 minutes until soft but not coloured, adding the garlic for the last minute. Mix in a little bit of flour to thicken the sauce. Increase the heat and then add the wine, allowing it to bubble down for a minute or two. Now add the tomato purée, then the rosemary and bay leaf. Then add the anchovies and season well. Return the lamb shanks to the pan, pour over the stock and cover with a tight fitting lid. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a very gentle simmer for about 3 hours. Turn the shanks occasionally during this time.
- Meanwhile, prepare the persillade. Simply toss the mint, lemon zest, parsley, garlic and anchovies together in a small bowl. Cover and chill until serving.
- Half an hour before serving, prepare the mash. Cook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling salted water for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Warm the milk and butter in a small pan until just coming to the boil and remove. Drain the potatoes well and mash until smooth with the milk and butter mixture. Stir the nettles through to wilt completely and season to taste. Cover and keep warm.
- Once cooked the meat from the lamb shanks should be really tender and just falling off the bone. Carefully remove the shanks to a large plate and keep warm covered in foil. To serve, spoon a large dollop of creamy nettle mash into the centre of each serving bowl or plate. Sit a lamb shank proudly on top, spoon the sauce over and scatter generously with persillade.
Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Mud Pie with Strawberries
Ingredients
225g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
125g butter, diced
175g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g ground almonds
6 large eggs, separated
For the Chocolate Glaze
100g dark chocolate?(70% cocoa solids), finely chopped
30g butter
50g icing sugar, sifted
75ml Cuinneog buttermilk
75g hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
Fresh strawberries decorated with wild pea flowers, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 20cm diameter springform tin with baking parchment.
To make the mud pie, melt the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl sitting over a pan of barely simmering water.
Remove the bowl from the heat and mix in the sugar, vanilla extract and ground almonds with a spatula. Stir through the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing after each addition, until you have a thick batter.
Put the egg whites in a standing food mixer (or use an electric hand-held mixer in a bowl) and whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add the egg whites to the chocolate batter and fold through gently until just combined.
Pour the chocolate batter into the prepared cake tin and place in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes until it is firm but with a slight wobble. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to sit on a wire rack to cool in its tin. Before removing the tin to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the glaze. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl sat over a pan of just simmering water. When melted, remove from the heat, whisk in the icing sugar and buttermilk, a little bit at a time.? Allow to cool until the mixture becomes thick enough to leave a figure of eight on the surface.
Pour over the cooled dark chocolate mud pie and then sprinkle with hazelnuts and strawberries.
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