I recently had the pleasure of taking a trip to the G Hotel in Galway which is an absolutely stunning hotel where we were pampered with all sorts of culinary delights, delicious cocktails and the most amazing spa treatments. The hotel was designed by Irish milliner Philip Treacy and the whole hotel is designed in the most unique and stunning way. If you have the chance to splash out for a night in Galway, this is the place to stay. While there I had a delicious breakfast one morning of potato cakes with creme fraiche and local smoked salmon. It was the perfect weekend breakfast and when I came back I decided to make it for dinner one evening.

I added spring onions and chives to my potato cakes to give it some lovely flavour, and really once you have made the potato cakes, there’s not much else to do but mix up some creme fraiche sauce which takes a matter of seconds and drape some delicious smoked salmon over the top. This is the kind of meal that you can happily eat at any time of day, perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

The potato cakes really are quite easy to make, once the potato are boiled it is just a case of mashing them up and adding in the seasoning. I did my usual trick and made a batch of them and froze the rest which would be perfect sides for a few quick meals in the coming weeks. I hope you give these a go, they are really delicious and well worth the effort.

Ingredients (Serves 5-6)

Smoked Salmon (around 60g-80g per person)

Wedges of lemon to serve

Potato Cakes:

1 kg floury Irish potatoes

75-100g butter

1 bunch scallions (sliced) sautéed until soft

1 bunch chives chopped

Pinch salt & pepper

Creme Fraiche:

200g creme fraiche (Glenisk is the best)

1 heaped tbsp finely chopped chives

pinch salt

1. Pop your potatoes into a pot full of boiling water with a heaped teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil and then bring the heat down to a medium low heat and let them boil away for about15-20 minutes depending on size. Put a skewer through the potatoes to test (don’t be tempted to skewer all your potatoes too early or they might go soggy… You want floury and light potatoes)
2. When cooked, peel the potatoes and pop into a large bowl with the butter and start mashing. You can use more or less of the butter depending on the texture of the mash, you want it soft. Add in the cooked scallions, chives, salt and pepper. Mash until combined, but don’t over mash as the potatoes will get starchy.
3. Portion the mash out into equal amounts and squish into disc shapes with you hands. Bake in an oven with a little oil on a baking tray for about 20 minutes at 200C. Alternatively you can fry on a medium heat with a little butter or oil for a few minutes either side, you only want these golden in colour. Make sure to oil the pan well as you don’t want the potato sticking to the pan. (I prefer them baked rather than fried).
4. Mix together all creme fraiche ingredients in a little bowl.
5. Dollop the creme fraiche on top of the potato cakes and drape the smoked salmon over the whole lot. Serve with a lemon wedge on the side or squeeze a little lemon juice on top of the salmon.