Lambs sweetbreads with spring vegetable purée

Serves 4

For the offal lovers out there - I hope you exist - this dish is right up your street. If you're not a sweetbread fan you can easily cheat and use a prime cut of lamb like best end or rump. Although people who've never tried them find it hard to believe, sweetbreads don't taste at all strong, and they go really well with tender spring vegetables and this vibrantly green vegetable purée. Chicken breast or fish fillets would also be a good match, and real vegetarians could use grilled halloumi. You can add asparagus to the seasonally green purée or vegetable medley if you have any to spare.

500-600g plump lamb sweetbreads, cleaned and rinsed under cold water for 10 minutes
2tbsp vegetable or olive oil
150g broad beans (after podding), cooked and skinned if large
120g peas cooked
8-12 baby leeks cooked
A couple of good knobs of butter

for the purée

1 medium leek, roughly chopped and washed
2-3 spears of sprouting broccoli or a head of broccoli, roughly chopped
A spoonful or 2 of the broad beans and peas
A good knob of butter

Put the lambs sweetbreads in a pan, cover with cold water with a couple of teaspoons of salt, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and leave to cool. Once they are cool, trim any fat and put to one side.

Meanwhile bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the leek and broccoli for the purée until soft. Drain and blend with a few of the broad beans and peas to a coarse purée in a food processor. Transfer to a pan, add the butter and season to taste.

Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan, season the sweetbreads and pan fry them for 4-5 minutes, turning them every so often until they are nicely coloured, add a knob of butter and put to one side. Meanwhile re-heat the peas, broad beans and leeks gently in butter and season.

To serve, heat the purée and spoon on to warmed plates then arrange the sweetbreads on top and scatter the vegetables over.

Jersey Royals would be lovely with this.