Name: Salad of Sprout Tops, Salsify and Ham Hock
Yield: Serves 4 as a starter
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1 small ham hock, cooked, some of the cooking liquor reserved; salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 shallots, peeled, halved and finely chopped; juice of ½ lemon; a little vegetable oil (optional); 1 tablespoon cider vinegar; 1 tablespoon water; 6-7 salsify; 1 teaspoon English mustard; 4 tablespoons extra virgin rapeseed oil; a couple of handfuls of sprout tops, thick stalks removed and washed

Preparation info

Serves
4
as a starter

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

British Seasonal Food

By Mark Hix

Published 2008

About

Blanched sprout tops make a tasty leaf for a warm salad starter. Alternatively, if you can’t find these leafy tops, then the outer leaves from large Brussels sprouts will do. Salsify is another underused vegetable, which is hardly surprising given that it is a rather dirty-looking long, thin root. Once peeled, however, it has a totally unique eating quality.