A fairly quick and delightful summer salad. A base of new potatoes, raddish, cherry tomatoes and asparagus with a rouille dressing, hard-boiled quail eggs and kippers.
Kippers are smoked Herring from Scotland, but other smoked oily fish like Mackerele will also work well.
Clean and steam small young potatoes, skin on.
Clean and cut an assortment of raddishes into chunky pieces.
Cut the cherry tomatoes into neat halves.
Blanch some asparagus briefly, then shock in iced water so that it keeps its colur and a little crispness. We use green asparagus for a lack of options, but white asparagus would be good, too.
Add chives and a light sprinkling of fresh lemon thyme leaves.
Make a rouille: whisk four egg yolks vigerously, slowly adding olive oil until the mix emulsifies into a mayonnaise. Then add a pinch of salt, half a teaspoon of mustard, a crushed clove of garlic, a pinch of cayenne pepper and three pinches of smoked paprika powder. Add a splash of lime juice and whisk, then cool the rouille until it is time to serve.
Boil quail eggs (6 per portion). They take approximately 4 minutes to boil from room temperature into boiling water. Shock them really well in very cold water, then peel.
To assemble the salad, mix the base ingredients together with the rouille, then add the quail eggs and chunky pieces of smoked fish (kippers, mackerel). Toss lightly and enjoy.
