Cookbook Club – Smitten Kitchen Bonus Recipe

As I noted in my Buttered Popcorn Cookies post, while the cookies were a total fail, everything else in The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook seemed to be quite good (see all the dishes on my Cookbook Club site). The Leek Fritters with Garlic and Lemon would have been my dish of choice if not for the Buttered Popcorn Cookies, so I decided to give them a try.

The recipe says to use only the white and light green parts of the leeks, but that would mean disposing of about 2/3 of the leek. Wasting food pains me, so I decided to see what would happen if I used the green parts as well. They have a stronger flavor which I like, so I thought it worked out just fine. I chopped and boiled the entire leeks, then wrung them out in a dish towel.

Then I added scallions, flour, salt, baking powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper which I’d whisked together in a separate bowl.

I mixed the dry ingredients into the leeks, then added an egg and stirred until they were evenly coated.

I dropped small bunches of the leek mixture into a pan with olive oil and cooked 3 minutes on each side over medium heat.

The cream topping is a mixture of plain yogurt, lemon juice and zest, salt, and minced garlic. The recipe calls for sour cream, but I always substitute with plain yogurt because that’s what I keep in my fridge. I also added a sprinkling of rosemary walnut crumbs (go here for my Guessipe). The leek fritters were delicious and will be a regular in my arsenal moving forward. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is redeemed!