Courgette rosti with a fried duck's egg and chilli

Serves 4

Courgette rosti with a fried duck's egg and chilli (Jason Lowe)

While I was at the village shop buying the Saturday papers recently I noticed it was selling a plant laden with tiny red chillies and decided to buy it for Lara's parents, Camilla and Ed. This is a great brunch dish to kick-start the day.

1 floury potato weighing about 200-250g, boiled in its skin, cooled and peeled
1 large or 2 small courgettes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 ducks' eggs
2-3tbsp vegetable or corn oil for frying
A couple of good knobs of butter
12 or so small chillies or a couple of medium to large ones, sliced
A handful of Greek basil sprigs or larger leaves, torn

Grate the potato and courgette into a bowl, mix well and season. Heat a non-stick individual blini or frying pan with a little oil.

Add a quarter of the potato and courgette mixture to the pan, gently pressing it with a spatula or fish slice and then mould it into a rough circle if you are using a large pan and cook for about 3-4 minutes until crisp.

Then flip it over, add some butter to the pan and cook for the same amount of time until crisp; keep warm in a low oven. Repeat with the other three portions of the courgette and potato mixture.

Meanwhile, fry the chillies in the butter in a separate pan until they soften and put them to one side.

Fry the ducks' eggs in butter, and then serve the eggs on the rosti with the chilli and basil scattered over.