Our columnist Mark Hix accepts a challenge from an old friend to catch a wild salmon in the weirs of Ireland
Two or three times a year I’ll visit Ireland, mainly to see my good friend Peter Hannan who supplies my restaurants exclusively with Glenarm estate beef. My stay often includes a little bit of fishing, a lot of very good eating and experimenting with Peter’s new beef, lamb and pork products. But last time I stayed, I was focused on fishing because Peter had challenged me to catch a salmon, something I’d never managed to do in Ireland.
On day one, we fished the Galway weir for a couple of hours, fishing the local way with shrimp, and didn’t catch a damn thing. The only way we knew the fish were there was because we saw a couple of local anglers catch one, although our guest, acclaimed Brazilian barbecue chef Andre Lima de Luca, did manage to hook into one before he lost it.
So we left the weir and headed up to the River Cong, which was actually closer to where we were staying, to try to tempt some salmon on the fly. The minute we arrived a few fish were jumping and turning on the river, so things certainly looked more promising.
Read more: Mark Hix on the classic Negroni
But after another couple of hours’ hard fishing, we discovered that these fish were even less interested than the ones down at the weir, if that was possible, but I guess that’s fishing for you.
We consoled ourselves over a few pints of Guinness, as we discussed tomorrow’s (hopefully more fruitful) fishing plans and tonight’s menu. Andre lifted our spirits by sharing lots of new and interesting ideas for barbecue flavourings with us, such as coffee beans, cinnamon and even spraying Guinness onto your meat during cooking. Pretty inspiring stuff, considering we were only two pints in.
Even though we returned empty-handed, we were determined to cook a special supper for our hosts.
Andre and I prepared a meal that we hoped would be a simple homage to traditional Irish cooking with a new twist. Peter kindly supplied us with a whole ten bone rack of his Moyallon bacon chops for the occasion, which I simply roasted, making sure I blanched the rind in boiling water first to get the crackling just right; not soggy, but crisp and chewy.
Mark Hix's pork and potatoes Irish extravaganza
Andre prepared some Portuguese smashed roast potatoes, which involves boiling them in their skins before squashing them under a tea towel. They went into a roasting tray in the oven with some quartered onions, directly under the bacon rack, so the meat’s juices dripped onto the potatoes while they were cooking.
Both the bacon rack and potatoes were simply delicious, and I knocked up a new version of my classic parsley sauce, adding mustard and chopped spring onions to the mix. Here’s the recipe if you want to recreate our Irish supper at home.
Find out whether I ever actually caught a salmon in part two of my Irish fishing adventure next week.
Spring parsley sauce
Serves 4-6
30g butter
20g flour
1tsp English mustard
100ml cider
150ml chicken stock
1tbsp chopped parsley
3 spring onions, finely chopped
2tbsps double cream
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
Melt the butter in a thick-bottomed pan, then stir in the flour and mustard. Gradually add the cider and stock, stirring or whisking constantly to avoid lumps forming. Bring to the boil, season and simmer very gently for about 20 minutes, stirring every so often. The sauce should be quite thick by now; if not, let it simmer for a little longer. Add the double cream and continue simmering for a couple minutes, then add the parsley and spring onions and simmer for another minute or so.