Quail’s egg salad with brussel sprout puree

This is another of Bruno van Assche’s recipes, from his cookery class in Ghent. I will freely admit that I hate sprouts, but this recipe could make me fall in love with them…

A great weekend brunch dish or starter; you could make more if you want to have it as a main (the portion I had was small and beautiful)

Serves 4

• 500g of cooked Brussels Sprouts
• 1 finely chopped onion
• Pepper and salt
• 4 quail’s eggs (or you could use a hen’s egg per person)
• Butter
• 2 tbsp green lentils, pre-soaked and cooked
• 1-2 rashers of bacon
• 1 tbsp red wine vinager
• 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce (you could use normal soy sauce and add a tsp of sugar)
• 1 slug of olive oil
• Milk
• Nutmeg (optional)
• Toast, cut into soldiers

Before you start, cook the brussels sprouts and cook your lentils (typically green lentils need overnight soaking and then a 20-minute boil).
Cook off the bacon.

Add the lentils to the pan. Warm them through and get the pan nice and hot.

Add the soy, red wine vinegar and olive oil and whisk together to make a nice kind of jus. Cook for about 5 minutes and add some pepper and salt.
While it’s cooking, have a pan of boiling water on the hob and cook the quail’s eggs.

To make perfect poached quail’s eggs, add a dash of white vinegar to the pan, swirl the water so it’s in motion when you drop the egg into it. Cook for 1 minute (3-4 minutes for the perfect poached hen’s egg) and then take out and put into a bowl of cold water immediately.

Fry off the onion in butter and add the brussels. Mix with a little milk and blend up to a cream. You can add nutmeg if you like – just grate a little over the top.

Arrange with the sprout puree at the bottom, the lentils and bacon at the side, the egg on top and the soldiers above it.