Serves: 4

Before diving into this quite excellent recipe, it has been a few months since my last post.

It is not that we haven’t been cooking and eating well, though, since my last post, Nat and I have welcomed a little baby girl to the family: Avalon.

I can’t blame sleepless nights. Avalon has been an absolute dream and has slept from 7pm to 7am since she was nine weeks old. Though with Christmas, a few trips thrown in and all the rest of the craziness, typing up recipes has taken a back seat.

I have a real backlog of recipes to get through, though now have the joy of typing, looking at the most beautiful sister to Max, Tom and Oliver. This recipe is for Avalon.

I can’t wait to cook with her in the kitchen.

And now to these fritters.

They are superb.

Chosen and cooked by Nat as part of a bigger Yotam feast, they are so tasty and so soft. Add the sauce and serve alongside this Yotam Ottolenghi Char-grilled Asparagus, and you’ve got an absolutely wonderful weekend meal on your hands.

Ingredients

3 leeks (450gm in total, trimmed weight)
5 shallots, finely chopped
150ml olive oil
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and sliced
25gm parsley (leaves and fine stalks), finely chopped
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 free-range egg white
120gm self-raising flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
150ml milk
55gm unsalted butter, melted

Sauce*

100gm Greek yoghurt
100gm sour cream
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
20gm parsley leaves, chopped
30gm coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1. Start by making the sauce. Blitz all the ingredients together in a food processor until a uniform green. Set aside for later.
2. Cut the leeks into 2cm thick slices; rinse and drain dry. Sauté the leeks and shallots in a pan with half the oil on medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until soft. Transfer to a large bowl and add chilli, parsley, spices, sugar and salt. Allow to cool down.
3. Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and fold it into the vegetables. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, whole egg, milk and butter to form a batter. Gently mix it into the egg white and vegetable mixture.
4. Put 2 tbsp of the remaining oil in a large frying pan and place over medium heat. Spoon about half of the vegetable mixture into the pan to make four large fritters. Fry them for 2 – 3 minutes on each side, or until golden crisp. Remove to kitchen paper and keep warm. Continue making the fritters, adding more oil as needed. You should end up with about eight large fritters. Serve warm, with the sauce on the side or drizzled over.

* Substitute a squeeze of lemon or lime juice if you just don’t have the time for the sauce.