Baked eggs with cheddar potatoes and braised little gem

Ingredients

Method

1. 1Heat the oven to 200°C. Peel the baking potatoes and cut them into 1 cm slices. Boil in salted water for 8 minutes, until just tender at the edge, then drain well.
2. 2Halve the little gem lettuces lengthways and wash them. Peel and thinly slice the onion. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Strip the leaves from the fresh thyme. Grate the mature Cheddar. Chop the flat-leaf parsley. Halve the lemon.
3. 3Warm 20 g of the unsalted butter and 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Soften the onion with half the sea salt for 6 minutes, until translucent.
4. 4Add the garlic and thyme and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Lay in the little gem, cut side down, with the remaining 20 g unsalted butter. Cover and cook for 4 minutes, then turn, until the cut faces are golden and the leaves wilted but still bright.
5. 5Lift the little gem onto a plate. Add the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil to the skillet. Fry the potato slices over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, turning once, until patched golden. Season with the black pepper and the rest of the sea salt.
6. 6Stir the Dijon mustard through the potatoes. Nestle the little gem back in. Scatter over the mature Cheddar, keeping eight small gaps.
7. 7Crack the large eggs into the gaps. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the whites are just set and the yolks are still soft and glossy.
8. 8Squeeze over half the lemon. Taste and add more lemon if you want it sharper. Scatter with the flat-leaf parsley and bring the skillet to the table.