A Yotam Ottolenghi‘s family dish, with its usual kilometric list of ingredients and a recommendation: do not skip any of them. If anything, spare yourself the bother of doing the sauce. Recipe was found on Plenty, his latest cookbook.

Ingredients 

For the sauce

• 100g Greek yogurt
• 100g sour cream
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt to taste
• 20g finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 30g finely chopped coriander leaves

For the fritters

• 3 leeks (450g trimmed weight)
• 2 banana shallots, peeled and finely chopped (I used regular red onions)
• 140ml olive oil
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced
• 25g parsley, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
• 1 teaspoons  ground cumin
• ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
• ½ teaspoons  ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoons sugar
• salt to taste
• 1 egg white
• 120g self-raising flour (or regular all purpose flour with 2 teaspoons of a raising agent, like Royal).
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 150ml milk
• 55g unsalted butter, melted

Method

Start by making the sauce. Put all the sauce ingredients into the bowl of a food processor, blitz together until a uniform green, then set to one side.

Cut the leeks into 2cm thick rounds, rinse and dry. Over medium heat, sauté the leeks and shallots in a pan with five tablespoons of oil until soft – about 15 minutes – then transfer to a bowl and add the chilli, parsley, spices, sugar and salt. Leave to cool.

Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and fold it into the vegetables. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, egg, milk and butter to form a batter. Gently mix this into the egg white and vegetable mixture.

Put two tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Spoon the mixture into the pan to make four large fritters, and fry for two to three minutes a side, until golden and crisp. Transfer to kitchen towel and repeat, adding oil as needed, until the mixture is used up. Serve warm with the sauce on the side or drizzled over.