Fried duck egg with sprouting broccoli and anchovies

Serves 4

(Jason Lowe)

Everyone knows that asparagus can be dunked into a boiled egg or hollandaise sauce, and sprouting broccoli can be treated the same way. Here, I have just used the tips of the sprouting broccoli, so you could keep the stalks for the soup recipe below. The addition of anchovies creates a nice, natural, salty seasoning.

4 duck eggs
70-80g butter
4-5 spears of sprouting broccoli
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
50g can or jar of good-quality anchovies

Remove the florets and a few leaves from the broccoli and reserve the stems for a soup. Cook them in boiling, salted water for 2-3 minutes until tender, then drain and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, melt half of the butter in a non-stick frying pan and gently fry the duck eggs, seasoning the whites as they are cooking, then transfer to warmed serving plates.

While the eggs are cooking, melt the rest of the butter in another pan and toss in the broccoli florets and leaves, and lightly season.

Cut the anchovies in half lengthways, scatter the broccoli and leaves around the eggs; lay the anchovy fillets on the whites.