Smoked salmon and quail egg shooters

Serves 4

Serve the eggs on a bed of flaky sea salt (Jason Lowe)

This is one of our favourite bar snacks at the moment and we normally serve it with chopped-up crispy bacon. I stole the idea for the dish from the Fatty Crab in New York, where they serve it topped with dried fish. But using smoked salmon trimmings works equally well, and you can even crisp up the skin and chop that into the mixture, too. I've had little wooden boards made with small holes drilled out to serve the eggs in, but presenting the eggs on a bed of flaky sea salt works well too.

12 quails' eggs
About 30-40g smoked salmon, finely chopped
2tsp finely chopped chives
Coarse sea salt to serve

Bring a pan of water to the boil and carefully lower the quails' eggs in with a slotted spoon. Simmer for 20 seconds, then drain and run under the cold tap briefly for a few seconds.

Spoon the sea salt on to a serving dish, cut the tops off the quails' eggs, stand them in the salt and spoon the finely chopped smoked salmon and then the chives on top of each one. Serve immediately.