Warm Poached Eggs in a Tomato and Tarragon Vinaigrette (6 portions)

" Serve as a first course or a light lunch (you may need two eggs for lunch). Don’t believe anyone that says to poach an egg in just enough water in which to cover it. Professionals poach eggs in very deep rapidly boiling water with just a touch of vinegar and definitely no salt. If the eggs are fresh the resulting egg will be a fantastic shape too. "

6/12 medium eggs	5 medium plum tomatoes
60ml/2floz olive oil	25g/1oz chopped shallots
1 clove of garlic crushed	15g/½oz tomato puree
60ml/2floz dry white wine	125ml/4floz white wine vinegar
1 bay leaf	Salt and freshly ground white pepper
Possibly a little sugar	Vinegar to poach eggs (sufficient to just taste it in the water)
4 handfuls of mixed leaves	sprigs of fresh chervil

Blanch, skin and deseed the tomatoes then cut them into a dice about 1cm/½in. keep the flesh of 1 tomato to one side for later. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the shallots and garlic and gently fry these off without colouring for about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, wine, vinegar and bay leaf. Season and simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes. Keep the sauce warm.

Poach the eggs in lots of boiling salted water and once cooked remove and drain well. Place a good handful of the leaves in the centre of each plate and place the eggs on these. Spoon the tomato vinaigrette over the eggs then scatter the reserved tomato dice over this. Garnish with sprigs of fresh chervil.

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