Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: Irish style eggs Benedict with beech smoked salmon
It has been a tough year, and we are heading for a Christmas unlike any we have had before. I miss people. I miss friends and colleagues and family. That is the part I will find most difficult to be honest. For me, one of the great joys of the holidays is having the time to catch up with those I love. We usually have family come to visit and our home is filled with people and pets. All my family are great cooks, so we cook and eat together and catch up on all the big and little things happening for us all. The best conversations often happen over the stove or across the table. We will still do that this year, but there will not be so many of us. The pandemic has put paid to that. Food will still be at the heart of our holidays though. I am already planning what I will cook and taking advance orders from my family. It will still be a special time; I cannot wait.
One of the good things to have come out of this year, and there are more than a few, has been the way many of us are thinking differently about food. We are cooking more at home and trying new things. Our concern for local business has also meant we are thinking more about where we buy our food. More and more people are searching out Irish food producers and discover how fantastic so many of them are.
Unfortunately, we all do not have Cork’s fabulous English Market on our doorstep, but the pandemic has meant that many producers are going online and shipping their produce nationwide. I have found that a godsend. I think it was in the English Market that I first bought some of the ingredient that is the star of today’s recipe. Frank Hederman produces some of the best, if not the best, smoked fish I have ever tasted. He has been smoking fish at his smokehouse in Little Island near Cobh for thirty-five years. Frank’s beech smoked salmon is the finest I have ever tasted.
An ingredient as special as this needs to be treated with respect. In truth, it needs a dish built around it, something to complement it as opposed to something that seeks to change it too much. This dish is my dream brunch. A mini-stack of gorgeous traditional Irish potato cakes topped with a perfectly poached egg, lots of rich creamy hollandaise and crowned with Franks incredible smoked salmon. Food does not get much better than this. We will be having this on Christmas morning. I will prepare the potato cakes the day before and then cook them that morning. Get hold of some of this salmon and give this a go if you can. You will not regret it.
- 300g warm mashed potato
- 100g plain flour
- 30g melted butter
- 2 chopped spring onions
- ½ tsp salt
- A good grind of black pepper
- 125g butter
- 2 egg yolks
- ½ tsp white wine vinegar
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- A pinch of cayenne pepper
- Four poached eggs
- Thickly cut slices of Hederman’s Beech Smoked Salmon
Begin by making your mashed potato. The secret to a great mashed potato is to bake rather than boil your spuds. They make lovely smooth mash.
Bake some rooster potatoes. Warm a little milk and a generous amount of butter in a pan. Scoop the flesh out of the potatoes into the pan. Mash well, season with salt & pepper. Taste and add more butter or seasoning if needed.
Take 300g of mash, add the flour, melted butter, chopped spring onions and salt. Mix into a smooth dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Use your hands to flatten to a thickness of about 2cm. Cut into discs about 10cm in diameter. You want two potato cakes per person.
Warm a heavy-based, non-stick pan over a high heat. You do not need any oil here at all, there is plenty of butter in the potato cakes already. Turn down to a medium heat. Pop on the potato cakes and cook for 4-5 minutes per side until they are golden brown and cooked through.
While they are cooking, slice the smoked salmon. You want two nice thick slices per person, about 1/2cm thick is perfect.
Get a pan of water on the hob to bring to a boil for your poached eggs.
Now make your hollandaise. Melt the butter in a small pan and skim any white solids from the surface. Put the egg yolks, white wine vinegar, a pinch of salt and a splash of ice-cold water in a metal or glass bowl that will fit over a small pan. Whisk for a few minutes, then put the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and whisk continuously until it is pale and thick. This will take anything from 3-5 minutes. Make sure the bowl is sitting above the water and not touching it or the eggs will start to cook rather than thicken.
Remove the bowl from the heat. Slowly and gently whisk in the melted butter little by little until it is all incorporated. If the sauce starts to split or curdle, drop in an ice cube and whisk until it is melted and incorporated. When you have whisked in all the butter you will have a lovely creamy hollandaise.
Keep the sauce warm over the pan of water, but off the heat as you poach the eggs. You wanted one soft poached egg per person.
Now plate up. Arrange a little stack of two potato cakes on a plate. Take a poached egg, making sure you have drained off any water, pop onto the potato cakes. Drape the smoked salmon slices across the egg and spoon over a generous serving of creamy hollandaise. Serve with some fresh peppery rocket if you like.
