Fried leeks

Name: Fried leeks
Yield: Serves 4 as a starter
Ingredients: 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 red pepper; 80 g caster sugar; salt and white pepper; 100 ml cider vinegar; 200 ml water; 1½ tbsp olive oil; 2 spring onions, sliced thinly at an angle, plus extra to garnish; 10 pink peppercorns; 1½ tbsp chopped capers; 5 medium leeks; 150 g crème fraîche; 50 g panko breadcrumbs; 150 ml sunflower oil; 3 cardamom pods, crushed; 1 free-range egg, beaten; ½ tsp coriander seeds

Preparation info

Serves
4
as a starter

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Plenty

By Yotam Ottolenghi

Published 2010

About

The sharp and sweet pickled red peppers used here are the sort of thing you can always keep in the fridge, ready to add to salads, roasted vegetables or salsas for fish.

Ingredients

1 red pepper
80 g caster sugar
200 ml water

Side dish
Vegetarian

Method

Clean the pepper and cut it into 5mm thick strips. Place in a small saucepan and add the sugar, water, vinegar, peppercorns, coriander seeds, cardamom and some salt. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the peppers are cooked. Set aside to cool down.

Meanwhile, remove and discard the hard green leaves from the leeks and cut them into roughly 6cm long segments. C