Introducing Yotam - Leek fritters

The first book from the shelf to undergo the 'shall I keep it?' test is Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty.  Not a fair test as I knew it would!  I love Yotam's recipes in the Guardian each Saturday and bought the book on the strength of that, but for some strange reason it's sat on my shelf looking rather pristine still.  So it's time it started earning it's shelf space and we started today with Leek Fritters.  The name for these sounds a little boring, but they are gorgeous. I will definately be making these again.  The following recipe is to serve 4, I halfed it quite easily as there was only 2 of us for lunch.

Ingredients -

450g leeks, trimmed weight.
5 shallots ( I used an onion)
150ml olive oil
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and sliced, or live a little and keeep the seeds in!
25g parsley leaves, finely chopped
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white
120g self raising flour
1tbsp baking powder
1 egg
150 mls milk
55 g butter, melted

For the sauce -

100g Greek Yoghurt
100g Soured Cream
2cloves crushed garlic
2 tbsp Lemon juice ( I used Lime and will stick with that, it's lovely)
3 tbsp olive oil (I forgot to put that in, not sure what difference it would make but's it's great without)
1/2 tsp salt
20g parsley leaves
30g coriander leaves
(or do as I did and just throw in what you have, I used mix of parsley, coriander & chive but no where near quantity specified I don't think)

Start by blitzing sauce ingredients together. Set aside for later.
Cut the leeks into thick slices  and saute with the shallots with half the oil until soft, about 15mins, combine with the chilli, parsley, sugar, salt  & spices and leave to cool (oops was fine warm)

Now to the eggs, (when I halfed the recipe I used 1 egg and whisked the whites and used the yolk in the batter.) Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and fold into the vegetables. In another bowl mix the flour, baking powder, whole egg (I'd throw the odd egg yolk in here too) milk and butter to form a batter then add to the vegetable mix.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in your largest frying pan and use about half the mix to form 4 fritters, cook for 2-3 mins a side till golden, keep warm while finishing the rest. You should end up with 8 large fritters. Having said that I got 6 out of my half mix, but maybe they were smaller than his.

Serve warm with the sauce drizzled over, delicious!

I sat and flicked through the book whilst enjoying my lunch and all I can say is I really don't think it will be long before it gets another airing :-)

Have a peek at the book here .....