A Ploughman's Salad

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small saucepan for the eggs
• •Small jar or bowl for the dressing
• •Wide serving plate or board

Instructions

1. 1

   Boil the eggs

   Bring a small pan of water to a proper rolling boil. Lower the eggs in gently with a spoon. Six and a half minutes for a yolk that's just set at the edges but still golden and jammy in the centre. When the time's up, straight into cold water. Leave them there while you sort everything else out. Peel them when they've cooled enough to handle, which is also when the shell comes away most cleanly.

   Eggs straight from the fridge into boiling water. Counter-intuitive, but the cold egg hitting hot water makes the shell contract slightly, and peeling becomes less of an ordeal.
2. 2

   Make the dressing

   Whisk the cider vinegar, olive oil, and English mustard together in a small bowl or jar with a pinch of salt. The mustard does double duty here: it binds the dressing and gives it a quiet heat that belongs with cheddar the way a pub belongs on a corner. Taste it. If it needs more acid, add a few drops of vinegar. It should be sharp enough to stand up to the pickle and the cheese.

3. 3

   Prepare the components

   Break the cheddar into rough, craggy pieces with your hands or a knife. Don't slice it neatly. You want irregular chunks that catch the dressing and the pickle in their crevices. Core and slice the apple thinly. Halve the pickled onions. Halve or quarter the radishes. Tear the bread into thick slices and butter them generously while the butter is still soft enough to spread without tearing.

   The cheddar matters more than anything else on this plate. Find something with age and bite, crumbly rather than waxy, the sort that leaves crystals on your tongue. A proper farmhouse cheddar from Somerset or Lancashire will do what a block from the chiller cabinet cannot.
4. 4

   Compose the salad

   Lay the butter lettuce leaves across a wide plate or board, the kind with a bit of room. Scatter the cheddar, apple slices, pickled onions, and radishes over and among the leaves. Not arranged, just placed with some care, the way you'd set things out for someone to help themselves. Spoon the Branston pickle in two or three generous dollops. Halve the eggs and nestle them in. Tuck the watercress into any gaps. Drizzle the dressing over the leaves and the cheese, not the pickle. Serve with the buttered bread alongside.

Chef Tips

• •The cheddar is the heart of this plate. Spend your money here. A proper West Country farmhouse cheddar, aged until it's crumbly and sharp and leaves salt crystals on your tongue, will carry the whole thing. Pre-grated or mild cheddar won't do. This is the ingredient that everything else orbits.
• •Branston pickle is not negotiable. I know there are other chutneys. I know you can make your own. But a ploughman's without Branston is a different meal entirely. The sweet, vinegary tang of it against sharp cheddar is one of those combinations that works so well you stop questioning why.
• •Butter the bread while the butter is soft. This sounds obvious, but cold butter tears bread and sits on the surface in pale, unappealing lumps. Leave it out for half an hour before you start. Good bread, good butter, spread thick. We're only making lunch.
• •If you want to turn this into something closer to supper, add a few slices of good ham, some celery, and a spoonful of piccalilli. The bones of a ploughman's are generous enough to support whatever you put alongside them.

Advance Preparation

• •The eggs can be boiled up to a day ahead and kept in the fridge, unpeeled. Peel them just before serving so the whites stay smooth.
• •The dressing keeps in a sealed jar for a week. Give it a good shake before using, as the mustard will settle.
• •Everything else is best prepared fresh, but the cheese can be broken into chunks and the pickled onions halved an hour or so before you sit down.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 500g)