Caitríona Redmond: How to make my baked salmon with bulgur salad

Plus: the upsides of cooking in advance, and tinned foods for emergency situations

Pic: iStock

According to the National Museum of Ireland, no celebration on St Brigid’s Day would be complete without a celebration meal. 

The traditional meal was potatoes and freshly churned butter, sometimes with cabbage added to make colcannon, and dessert was apple cakes or barmbrack with tea.

Having a house of both Irish and English speakers, Irish culture is very important to us. Of course, food is at the very centre of any of our celebrations. The teen and the nearly-teenager both agree, however, that food is a cause for celebration all year round.

Yesterday, while a couple of teenagers hung out in the living room, I heard a suggestion of “Let’s raid the kitchen to see what there is to eat”. I thanked my past self that I’d done a batch cook last Sunday.

I often wonder what their friends think when they come over, because there’s so much home-cooked food to choose from.

On social media recently there was a trend where people were explaining whether they grew up in an “ingredients house” or not, and I realised that I’m raising my kids in a similar environment to my own childhood.

Most of what I buy is ingredients-forward because I’m planning around meals and snacks on a budget. 

Of course, I’m not averse to the odd fast food meal — it’s just not as satisfying as snaffling a jam tart while it’s still warm from the oven. There were 12 of those at the start of Sunday, with just one left on Monday morning.

Cooking in advance saves money. That means you use up less energy and time when cooking meals with store cupboard ingredients. Time is precious and the more we have to invest in ourselves, the better. My recipes are designed to save us all time in the kitchen.

I’m a busy working parent, juggling a lot, which is why boosting my meal plan from the press is so valuable — not only to my household budget, but also to my time. 

The extra day this weekend to prepare and cook for the week ahead will make a massive difference. It frees up my time and effort for other things, like recipe testing, dashing to/from activities with the kids, and — of course — the day job. 

Maybe I will bake that barmbrack to celebrate how planning on a budget can pay the bills and give me financial security. I think nothing better marks the weekend that is in it.

Home truths

If you love a rummage in the food shop you’ll already know there is gold to be found on the tinned food shelves. We’re moving beyond tins of baked beans and mushy peas and broadening our horizons as to the variety of preserved food you can find to buy.

I cannot be without my jar of minced garlic & ginger which gives a big punch of flavour to many a meal and saves me having to rummage around for one or the other. Garlic and ginger go together like bread and butter in many recipes and I can only find that jar in Asian food stores.

Pesto is a mainstay in my larder and it’s great for emergency pasta dishes, slathering onto a cheese toastie, or even frying eggs in.

What happens when the plan falls asunder and you’ve forgotten an essential ingredient or accidentally made the dinner on the charred side of well done? I don’t know about you but I keep emergency frozen pizzas on standby for these very occasions.

Baked Salmon with Bulgur Salad

recipe by:Caitriona Redmond 

I love this way of cooking fish because you throw out all the bits and pieces after cooking the fish so there is no “fishy” smell hanging around the house or kitchen equipment. It is also very quick and easy to prepare

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 30 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 4 salmon fillets (skin off)

• 200g of bulgur wheat

• 40g of butter

• 2 spring onions

• 1-2 lemons

• 1 red pepper

• 1 carrot

• black pepper

• salt

• If using frozen fish fillets take them out in the morning at breakfast time then defrost on the bottom shelf of the fridge.

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Cut the greaseproof paper into 4 equal pieces.

2. Pour the bulgur wheat into a large heatproof bowl and pour in enough boiling water to cover it, then cover tightly with cling film and put to one side.

3. Slice the lemon thinly and place 2 slices of lemon dead centre in each piece of greaseproof paper. Put a fillet of salmon on top of the lemon.

4. Season with salt and black pepper then place a knob of butter (10g) on top of the salmon.

5. Take the 4 corners of the greaseproof paper and pull them together then twist to seal the salmon into a parcel. Scrunch the paper together so that it is tightly sealed.

6. Place your parcel into an ovenproof dish then put it directly into the oven. Set a timer for 20 minutes.

7. Finely chop the red pepper, spring onions and carrot into equal sized pieces. Remove the cling film from the bulgur wheat as it should have soaked up all the hot water at this stage.

8. Stir in the chopped vegetables.

9. When the timer goes off remove the salmon parcels from the oven.