Rogan

Courgette purée

75g unsalted butter

300g large green courgettes, thinly sliced

100ml double cream

Marjoram butter sauce

2 tbsp sunflower oil

140g white onion, finely diced

50ml white wine vinegar

150ml white wine

10g marjoram leaves

160ml double cream

300g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Quails’ eggs

50ml white wine vinegar

12 quails’ eggs

salt, for seasoning

To make the purée, melt the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a medium–high heat, then add the courgettes and sweat them for 5–6 minutes until tender and soft. Add the cream and cook for about 2 minutes to reduce the liquid, until the cream is almost split. Transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth. Season with salt and leave to one side.

Preheat a barbecue or grill to high.

To make the marjoram butter sauce, warm a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the oil and sweat the onion, stirring regularly, for 5–7 minutes until translucent. Deglaze the pan with the vinegar and wine, add half the marjoram and cook for 3–4 minutes until reduced to a syrup. Pass the syrup through a fine sieve into a medium saucepan, set the pan over a medium heat and add the cream, stirring well. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Gradually add the butter pieces, whisking constantly and adding more when the previous piece has melted and is incorporated into the sauce. Remove from the heat and season with salt.

Halve the courgettes, cutting any larger bits into chunks, coat in the oil and season with a pinch of salt. Cook on the barbecue or grill until charred and tender.

To cook the quails’ eggs, pour 45ml of the white wine vinegar into a wide bowl and carefully crack in all of the eggs, slightly spaced apart. Allow the eggs to sit in the vinegar for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil and add the remaining vinegar. Turn down the heat and reduce to a simmer. Swiftly but carefully remove the eggs from the vinegar one at a time with a slotted spoon, transfer straight into the simmering water and cook all the eggs together for 1 minute 20 seconds. Remove and season with salt. They will look like little hard-boiled eggs because the vinegar sets the white around the yolk.

Spoon the courgette purée on to plates, then divide the grilled courgettes among the plates, distributing the shapes and sizes evenly. Finish the sauce with the remaining chopped marjoram and drizzle over. Carefully halve the eggs and add to each plate.

HERITAGE POTATOES WITH LOVAGE AND ONION ASH (#ulink_6ae4989c-847b-5121-a50b-b5e3238e4f74)

We grow heritage potatoes at Our Farm, because they have a deeper flavour than most ordinary new potatoes, but a good organic baby potato will do just as well here. The maltodextrin for the onions is optional; it adds a white speckling to the black powder that, visually, gives it more depth and the appearance of real ash, but you can leave it out if you can’t get hold of it. Lovage is a staple in my mind and its pungent, musky overtones of anise, lemon and mint are perfect for livening up potato dishes – but be warned, a little goes a long way!

SERVES 6–8, AS A SIDE

Onion ash

1kg large white onions

50g maltodextrin (optional)

Confit potatoes

500g heritage baby potatoes, such as baby red King Edwards

300ml rapeseed oil

10g salt

2 bay leaves

1 tsp white peppercorns

4 garlic cloves, crushed

Caramelised shallot purée

350g shallots, sliced

1 tbsp sunflower oil

50g unsalted butter

70ml whole milk

salt, for seasoning

Lovage emulsion

100g flat-leaf parsley leaves

100g lovage leaves

300ml sunflower oil

2 soft-boiled eggs (cooked for 4 minutes)

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas Mark 6. To make the onion ash, cut the unpeeled onions in half and place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Bake for 1½ hours until black. Leaving the onions in the oven, reduce the heat to 110°C/90°C Fan/Gas Mark ¼ and dry them out for about 3 hours.

Meanwhile, confit the potatoes. Put all the ingredients in a medium, heavy-based saucepan over a low heat and cook slowly for about 2 hours until the potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, make the purée. Cook the shallots in the oil and butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a low heat for 35–40 minutes, stirring regularly. When the shallots have turned a deep golden colour, strain them, pouring off and reserving the ‘onion oil’. Blitz the drained shallots with the milk in a blender until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve, season with salt and leave to one side.

Blend the blackened dried onions and maltodextrin, if using, into a powder, then stir in the ‘onion oil’ to make the ash a little clumpy. Put to one side.