Lamb's lettuce salads

I’ve just spent a couple of days up in the vineyards of Alsace, prospecting for a soon-to-be launched wine and travel website for which I’m doing the Alsace section. Scattered at the feet of the gnarled vines and tumbling down over the pink sandstone walls were masses of wild lamb’s lettuce. It’s my all-time fave, rave winter salad.

In French it’s called mâche, from mâcher (to chew). In Swiss German it’s known as Nüsslisalat, which nicely evokes its certain nuttiness, while across the Rhine the Germans sometimes refer to it as ‘mouse’s ear salad’. In Spain it seems to be known as hierba de los canónigos – the monks’ herb, supposedly because its peak season falls during Lent, when it was much enjoyed by the fasting monks.

Unfortunately I forgot my basket on my vineyard walk, but never mind. This year, with this extraordinarily mild weather, I’ve had a terrific crop down in the veggie garden (including plenty that seeded itself – which it does very freely and promiscuously). Here are some recipes that use these wonderful winter leaves to best advantage.

• Using an exceedingly sharp knife, slice away all the peel and white pith from the grapefruit (‘à vif’). Slip segments free from the membranes with the knife and put them on a plate
• Squeeze any juice out of the membranes with your hands and reserve it for the dressing
• Put the salt, pepper, mustard, oil, lemon juice and reserved juice in a jar or jug, and shake or beat vigorously until emulsified
• Wash and spin the lamb’s lettuce and divide between salad plates, mounding it up nicely
• Arrange grapefruit segments decoratively on top of the salads
• Cut the avocado in half, discard stone, cut avocado in segments and peel away skin
• Arrange segments likewise on salads and sprinkle with some dressing
• If using scallops, remove the muscle and separate them from the corals
• Slice in half horizontally, season with salt and pepper
• Toss scallops and corals (or prawns) in sizzling hot oil for a fraction of a minute till just seared (or until prawns go pink)
• Arrange shellfish on top of the salads and serve

Here’s a wonderful salad inspired by a recipe from Michel Husser at Le Cerf in Marlenheim, who uses the wild mâches from the vineyards around the village. His has chopped truffles as well as the foie gras, but they're a ludicrous price and the salad is quite extravagant and delicious enough without them.

• Mix together all the ingredients for the vinaigrette in the blender
• Soften the shallot gently in the oil, add the trimmed and sliced mushrooms
• Cover and cook gently for 5 minutes until the juices are rendered
• Uncover, raise the heat to concentrate and evaporate the juices
• Sprinkle the mushrooms with 2-3 tbsp vinaigrette and set them aside
• Toss the lamb’s lettuce in some more vinaigrette and arrange it on 6 plates
• Scatter mushrooms over salads
• Slice the foie gras quite thickly, then cut in fat strips and season with salt and pepper
• Heat a non-stick frying pan quite fiercely and sear the strips very  briefly till just golden and crusty  - there will be a lot of fat
• Lift out and arrange strips over the salads and serve at once (use the rendered fat for frying eggs or potatoes)

• Arrange the cupped radicchio leaves on plates or in soup bowls and fill them with a mixture of shredded frisée or oakleaf, sliced chicory and trimmed lamb’s lettuce, mounding it up nicely
• Do not peel the apple, but quarter and core it and cut in wafer-thin slices
• Add to the salad, or use the slices to brace the radicchio leaf to stop it toppling over, put goats’ cheese and walnuts on top and garnish with pomegranate seeds
• Mix together the dressing ingredients in a screwtop jar and shake vigorously to emulsify
• Pour the dressing over the salads and serve

A last-minute, super-speedy salad of delicious contrasts: white chicory leaves, dark green lamb’s lettuce, pink fish and a blood orange dressing.

• Arrange the chicory leaves in a star shape in soup bowls (5 to a bowl), put a nest of lamb’s lettuce in the centre and sprinkle on dressing
• Cut the fish fillets in 2-3 bias-cut strips
• Season the fish and dust lightly in flour – shake off any excess in a colander
• Heat the oil fiercely in a heavy pan and fry the fish pieces very briefly, turning them once
• Sprinkle with a little lemon juice and arrange them decoratively over the salad
• Deglaze the pan with the blood orange juice, swirl it around and splash it over the fish
• Sprinkle with fresh herbs of your choice, and serve at once with crusty bread

...and don't forget one of the best and simplest salads of all: lamb's lettuce tossed with a sharp vinaigrette (hazelnut or walnut oil works well) and finished with chopped hard-boiled egg. Yum yum (or miam miam as they say in these parts)