Poached salmon with Colcannon Salad
Liam Kirwan, head chef at the Albion in Islington, was on Bill Buckley's Food and Drink show to celebrate St Patrick's Day and came up with a wonderfully innovative dish to celebrate.
Colcannon salad is something that doesn't really exist in Irish food, but was something I came up with last summer whilst looking for a lighter alternative to traditional Irish fare.
Ingredients
Salmon
Salmon fillet
Poaching bag
Cockle butter sauce
Cockle meat (fresh or frozen)
White wine
White wine vinegar
Shallots
Garlic
Picked thyme
Cream.
Butter
Colcannon Salad
Curly kale
New Potato
Bacon
Spring onion
Parsley
Chive
Ground Mace
Lemon
1) Place a salmon fillet in a plastic bag and poach it for 12-15 minutes on a low heat so that the water is simmering, not boiling.
2) For the colcannon, instead of making a heavy mash, I decided to make it a salad.
3) Crisp the bacon by either frying it or placing it under the grill for eight minutes.
4) Boil the new potatoes, then add the crispy bacon, raw spring onion to get a little punch, picked parsley and a squeeze of lemon to lighten it up a little.
5) For the dressing - which I make out of mace to give it that taste - mix dry mustard, ginger, mace, grated lemon peel, lemon juice and olive oil.
6) Finally, for the cockle butter sauce, make a reduction of the cockle meat (either fresh or frozen is fine), white wine, white wine vinegar, shallots and a bit of garlic and picked thyme. Add a splash of cream and then whisk in some cold butter.