Try making this delicious smoked salmon and colcannon recipe.
Famous for its limestone landscape and a wide range of flora, the Burren is one of Ireland's most beloved and popular tourist attractions.
The Burren Food Trail gives visitors a unique experience of enjoying beautiful local food, heritage, and surroundings. Local producers, cafes, and restaurants came together to create a map of food experiences, and a new weekly event has just been launched.
How does kayaking your way to a gourmet picnic on the Finnavarra Peninsula sound?
When I think of the Burren, I think of delicious, thinly sliced, smoked Irish salmon. I love smoked salmon; it's perfect and simple for a quick lunch and great as a canapé topping. I keep a pack in the back of my fridge; it's a handy go-to when friends call around. If you have 2 minutes to spare, you can pop some in the blender with a bit of sour cream, cream cheese, a few drops of lemon, and salt and pepper. This makes a delicious pâté. Alternatively, it's hard to beat the traditional brown bread and butter topped with smoked salmon and some freshly cut chives.
The Burren Smokehouse is the family business of Peter and Birgitta Curtain. Since 1989, they have been smoking salmon, trout, and mackerel, and are now even smoking some locally produced cheese. They shared their recipe with me for ‘Burren hot smoked salmon on a bed of colcannon with stir-fried vegetables’. Birgitta uses two methods of smoking salmon. Cold smoking is the traditional Irish method, the temperature never rises above 35° degrees during smoking, the result is smooth and easily sliced salmon. Hot smoking at temperatures up to 80°C produces flakier salmon with a texture similar to grilled salmon.
Burren hot-smoked salmon on a bed of colcannon with stir-fried vegetables
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
800g Burren Hot Smoked Organic Salmon plain
- 1 lb or 500g floury potatoes
- 4 cups shredded leaves of cabbage
- 2 tbsp chopped scallions (spring onions)
- 2 tbsp butter or margarine
- 50 ml or ¼ cup of heated milk
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Stir-fry vegetables:
- 1 red pepper
- 1 onion
- 1 courgette
- 8 mushrooms
- 1 tsp soya sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Mustard Cream Sauce:
- 1 tbsp whole-grain mustard
- 500 ml or 1 pint of cream
- 2 tbsp white wine
Method:
Colcannon:
Boil the peeled potatoes in lightly salted water until tender, then drain.
Boil the cabbage and onion for about 5 minutes.
Drain and set aside.
Mash potatoes with milk, butter, salt, and pepper to taste.
Add the spring onion and cabbage mixture.
Stir Fry Vegetables:
Cut all vegetables into strips and stir-fry in olive oil until tender.
Mustard Cream Sauce:
Mix all ingredients together and heat.
Salmon:
Cut the Hot Smoked Organic Salmon into four pieces.
Heat the salmon in a preheated oven for 5 minutes at 175°C (350°F).
To decorate the plate, start by placing the base of colcannon, and add stir-fry vegetables on top.
Pour the mustard cream sauce over the vegetables, and top the dish with the Burren Hot Smoked Salmon.
For more information on Burren Smokehouse products and the Burren Food Trail, see the links below:
Originally published in 2014 and updated October 2025.
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