Slow-cooked duck egg with peas, mousserons, Chardonnay vinegar and smoked bacon

Begin by making the vinegar gel. This will make more than you need for this recipe, but it is difficult to make properly in smaller quantities. Mix all of the ingredients together in a saucepan, whisking until the powders are fully incorporated into the vinegar. Bring to the boil over a high heat and continue whisking for 1 minute. Pour the mixture onto a tray and allow to cool and set into a firm, brittle jelly. Once set, transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth. Season with salt and pass through a fine sieve into a squeezy bottle. Set aside in the fridge

Preheat a water bath to 64.5°C

Make the cracker by blending all of the ingredients together (apart from the malt vinegar powder) to form a batter. Steve came up with this recipe to use up the jelly that the kitchen gets when making confit pork belly, which is intensely salty and rich in umami. You can use white chicken stock instead, but it will need lots of seasoning

Heat a non-stick pan over a medium-high heat, then pour some of the batter in so that it covers the whole pan. The batter will sizzle and reduce until you’re left with a lacy brown pancake. Once it is evenly coloured all over, carefully peel it off the pan and allow to cool on some absorbent paper. Dust the cracker with the malt vinegar powder and taste for seasoning. Once cooled and brittle, break into shards and set aside until ready to plate

Remove the peas from their pods, reserving the shells for the pea stock. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and blanch the peas for 1 minute (or longer, if they’re larger and it’s later on in the season). Drain and refresh in iced water

Add the eggs to the water bath and cook for 50 minutes

While the eggs are cooking, prepare the pea stock. Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan and add the shallots and mushrooms. Cook until soft but not coloured (about 3–4 minutes). Add the pea shells, chicken stock, water and white wine, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan and reduce by two-thirds

While the stock is reducing, prepare the garnish. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over a medium-high heat. Add the mousseron mushrooms and cook until lightly coloured and beginning to smell roasted (about 5 minutes). Add the shallot and continue to cook for a minute or so. Add the reduced pea stock and turn the heat up to high, then simmer until reduced to a light coating consistency

5 minutes before the eggs are ready, add the chilled peas to the stock along with the bacon and tarragon to warm through. Spoon this mixture into warm bowls, then peel the duck eggs and place on top. Season with salt and pepper, then place small dots of the vinegar gel around the egg (this gel is very powerful in flavour, so you just need a few tiny dots to balance the richness of the egg yolk). Top the egg with shards of the cracker and garnish with pea tendrils and picked tarragon tops