Lobster salad

Serves 4

This is my favourite dressing of all time from the famous three-Michelin-star chef Louis Outhier. My flatmate John brought it home one day, 20 years ago, and I've used it ever since. It's got so many ingredients that it's sort of up for a bit of personal modification. It's almost like a refined barbecue sauce and can be served with almost anything from a warm or cold shellfish starter to barbecued chicken. Back then it was called Japanese dressing, although the ingredients are not that Japanese, so I guess it had been adapted to more easily available European ingredients. If your budget won't stretch to lobster, cooked tiger prawns would make a good alternative.

This is my favourite dressing of all time from the famous three-Michelin-star chef Louis Outhier. My flatmate John brought it home one day, 20 years ago, and I've used it ever since. It's got so many ingredients that it's sort of up for a bit of personal modification. It's almost like a refined barbecue sauce and can be served with almost anything from a warm or cold shellfish starter to barbecued chicken. Back then it was called Japanese dressing, although the ingredients are not that Japanese, so I guess it had been adapted to more easily available European ingredients. If your budget won't stretch to lobster, cooked tiger prawns would make a good alternative.

2 lobsters weighing 500-550g each, cooked and all the meat removed from the shell including claws and large leg meat
1 small head of curly endive (frisée), cleaned, washed and any dark-green outer leaves removed
1 small carrot, peeled and finely shredded into 3cm lengths
50g extra-fine French beans, trimmed and cooked

for the dressing

1 small shallot, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic peeled and crushed
1 small piece (10g) of root ginger, scraped and finely chopped or grated
Half a small carrot, peeled and finely diced
1tbsp rice wine or white wine vinegar
1/2tbsp soy sauce
1/2tbsp tomato ketchup
1tsp oyster sauce
4tbsp vegetable oil

First make the dressing - preferably the day before, as the flavours will infuse and improve - by putting all the ingredients, except the oil, into a bowl and mixing well, then gradually whisking in the oil.

Mix the frisée with the carrots, beans and any leg meat, but not meat from the main claws, and coat lightly with about a tablespoon of the dressing. Arrange the salad in a pile in the centre of four plates and place a shelled claw on top of each. Spoon the rest of the dressing around the salad, then cut the lobster tails into 1cm slices and place around the salad on the dressing.