Black pudding salad with soft boiled egg

Serves 4 as a starter or main

If you're not a black pudding fan, I will allow you to replace it with streaky bacon or even sliced up grilled sausages, although the textures and flavours won't be quite the same as the one I had in Bistrode in Sydney. This was scattered with thinly sliced crispy pig's ears although I'm not suggesting you do this for your mother - she might give you a thick ear in return.

If you're a connoisseur of black pudding then you will have your favourite type whether it's Bury, French, Spanish or somewhere else on the planet. You can use hen or duck eggs for this, again depending on which you prefer.

100g small salad leaves
4 large hen's eggs, or duck's eggs
400-450g black pudding, cut into 1cm slices (quartered first if using large ones)
1tbsp olive oil for frying

for the dressing

1tbsp tarragon vinegar
2tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic, peeled
2tbsp olive oil
3tbsp vegetable or corn oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

First, make the vinaigrette. Put all the ingredients into a clean bottle or jar. Give them a good shake and leave to infuse preferably overnight at room temperature, or for a couple of hours.

Boil your eggs for 3-5 minutes depending on size as duck eggs can bebigger than hens', then remove from the pan and plunge into cold water for 3-4 minutes. Peel carefully.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the black pudding for 2 minutes on each side. Dress and season the salad leaves and arrange in a large bowl or on plates and scatter the black pudding on top. Cut the eggs in half and place in the middle of each salad.