Mark Hix recipe: Sprouting broccoli and quail's egg salad with shaved Berkswell cheese

Serves 4

Sprouting broccoli and quail's egg salad with shaved Berkswell cheese (Jason Lowe) (Jason Lowe)

I like to give sprouting broccoli the same treatment as I give to asparagus. The sprouting stuff is such a fine and versatile vegetable – so very unlike its lumpen cousin, the large-headed broccoli – that it deserves that extra bit of care.

For the salad

25g or so of sprouting broccoli, trimmed of any woody stalks
12 quails' eggs
A handful of small tasty salad leaves
100-120g Berkswell or another hard shaving cheese

For the dressing

1tbsp cider vinegar
1tsp Tewkesbury mustard
2tbsp rapeseed oil
2tbsp vegetable or corn oil

Bring a pan of water to the boil and gently place in the quails' eggs using a slotted spoon (doing it this way should ensure the eggs don't break). Simmer gently for a minute, then drain in a colander and refresh in cold water for 30 seconds. Now carefully peel before they get too cold. Cook the sprouting broccoli in boiling salted water for a couple of minutes until just tender, but not soft, then drain. Cut it in half or trim down if large.

Whisk all of the ingredients together for the dressing and season to taste.

To serve, arrange the leaves, broccoli and quails' eggs on serving plates, season and then spoon the dressing over. Using a small sharp knife or a peeler, shave the cheese into thin slices over the salad and serve.