English garden salad with shredded ham hock and quails’ eggs

Serves 4 Starters and mains

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Method

Soak the ham hock in cold water for several hours or overnight. Place in a large pan with the chopped vegetables and bay leaves. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for around 31⁄2 hours, topping the water up as needed, until the ham is very tender and will pull easily off the bone. Remove the hock from the water and leave to cool, then cut off the skin and any excess fat and shred the ham using two forks. Cover and set aside until needed.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and blanch the green beans for just 1 minute, until they are still crunchy and bright but have lost their obvious rawness. Drain and throw into a cold serving bowl or onto a cold salad platter.

Refill the pan with water and bring to the boil again. Carefully drop in the quails’ eggs and boil for 2 minutes and 20 seconds exactly. Remove from the water and run under cold water until the eggs have cooled. Peel and cut in half, then set aside.

Cut the sugar snap peas in half along their length, to expose the young peas inside. Add to the bowl with the green beans. Toss in the raw peas.

Slice most of the radishes paper thin (a mandolin is best for this), and drop into iced water for a few minutes to crisp them. Drain and add to the bowl, along with the whole ones.

Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing together and add to the bowl. Toss everything together to lightly coat (you may not need all the dressing). Throw in the shredded ham hock and add the pea shoots. Arrange the halved quails’ eggs prettily through the salad, add a grinding of black pepper and serve immediately.