Leek Fritters with Romesco Sauce


This was a dish that we made during passover when we were searching for meals that would be kosher. We found this recipe for leek fritters, Sephardic style, on Serious Eats, and they basically sounded like leek latkes. And hey, how can those go wrong? Latkes are one of my favorite things and should be eaten more than once a year. So, we made these leek fritters and paired them with romesco sauce (also one of my favorite sauces that we make constantly, if you couldn't tell). The result? Fantastic. I think we've found a new Passover tradition!

Leek Fritters
Adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large leeks, white and light green parts only (about 12 ounces), halved lengthwise, sliced thinly (see A Platter of Figs for a good method of washing leeks)
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup matzah meal (this is good for cooking all year round!)
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes (or Aleppo pepper if you have it) (optional)
vegetable oil for shallow frying

Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over a medium-high flame. (You can use the same skillet to finish the fritters.) Add the leeks and salt and saute for about 5 minutes, until quite wilted.
  2. In a bowl, combine the sauteed leeks, salt, eggs, and matzah meal. Mix thoroughly. You should have a rather wet batter, not something that you could form into a ball, but with some body. If it is too thin, add a bit more matzah meal; or if it is too dry, add another beaten egg. If you are in doubt, fry a test fritter in step 3, then adjust.
  3. Add about 1/4 inch of oil to the same skillet and again heat over a medium-high flame. When it is sizzling hot, drop in the batter about two tablespoons at a time, and flatten a bit to form small pancakes. Don't crowd the pan, just do a few at a time. Fry about 1 minute until golden brown on the first side, then flip and cook until the second side is done. Remove the fritters to paper towels and season with sea salt. Serve immediately.
Various romesco recipes can be found in previous posts... this time we used the cooks illustrated recipe, which we detailed here and we substituted matzah for the baguette, which was delicious enough that I may never use bread in romesco again, just matzah!