Sunday brunch salad

Serves 4

This is one of those salads that comes into its own when you have a load of bits and bobs to use up in the fridge.

You don't need to use all of the ingredients I've used here – it all depends on what you have to hand. In fact, we made the most of a freakishly huge (10kg) late-season puffball foraged from Norfolk just before Christmas and diced it up and tossed it into a salad with some chicken livers and bacon and it was absolutely delicious.

A few handfuls of small winter salad leaves and herbs such as rocket, baby spinach, bittercress, pennywort, etc
2-3 thick slices of bread, cut into rough 1cm chunks
150g lambs' liver, trimmed and cut into rough 1cm chunks
150g calves' or lambs' sweetbreads, trimmed and cut into rough 1cm pieces
Vegetable or corn oil for frying
A couple of good knobs of butter
6 thick rashers of streaky bacon
4 duck eggs

For the dressing

1tbsp cider vinegar
2tsp Tewksbury or Dijon mustard
4tbsp rapeseed oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in a frying pan and cook the cubes of bread for 3-4 minutes on a medium heat, stirring them as they are cooking until nicely browned; then transfer to some kitchen paper on a plate.

Whisk all of the ingredients together for the dressing and season to taste. Season the sweetbreads, heat a little vegetable oil in a heavy frying pan and cook the sweetbreads for 3-4 minutes on a medium heat, turning them as they are cooking then add a knob of butter and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove the sweetbreads with a slotted spoon and keep warm.

Meanwhile, grill or fry the bacon in the same fat until crisp. Season the liver and fry in the same fat with a little more butter just for 2-4 minutes, keeping it pink, then remove and mix with the sweetbreads.

To serve, poach the eggs, arrange the winter salad leaves, offal and bacon on serving plates or in a bowl with the egg in the centre and spoon over the dressing.