To continue this week’s exploration of all cheeses Irish thanks to Pong Cheese, this recipe pairs St Tola Ash Log with wild tri-cornered leeks. It’s once again the season for wild garlic but, living in London, tracking it down is a lifetime’s work. Tri-cornered leeks, on the other hand, pop up frequently in patches of woodland or people’s gardens. If you are lucky enough to find it, wild garlic would work equally well in this recipe.
I was inspired to make this after eating my friend’s fritters, made with just the leeks, at her recent Italian supper club, La Minestra. I couldn’t resist adding some cheese to see if it would work. The result is gooey cheese-and-oniony finger food, perfect as a starter or snack.
Ingredients
100g plain flour
1 egg
120ml milk
75g St Tola Ash Log, crumbled or chopped into pieces
50g wild leeks, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper to season
Vegetable or rapeseed oil, for frying
Sift the flour, make a well in the middle and add the egg. Beat to combine, slowly adding the milk, until you have a thick-ish batter mix.
Add the cheese and wild leeks, season with salt and pepper and mix well to combine.
Pour enough oil into your pan until it’s about 5cm deep and heat it until it’s hot enough to brown a small piece of bread without burning it to a crisp. Drop a dessert spoon of the mixture into the pan; don’t try and fry too many at once or the temperature of your oil will drop.
The fritters will cook quickly, probably needing only 20-30 seconds before you will need to carefully turn them over. Another 20-30 seconds and you can lift them out to drain on kitchen paper. Eat them with a herbed yoghurt or just stuff them down on their own. This is just how gooey the cheese will be, so eat them whilst they’re hot:
Fromage Homage 
Oh crikey, they look fabulous. I could scoff the whole lot, right here, right now. I really must try to source some wild garlic/three-cornered leeks this year. It’s the only dratted wild plant that doesn’t grow in our garden. (Nettle soup, anyone?)
Isn’t the whole of East Anglia just one big marsh? I thought you’d be drowning in the stuff 😉
Nah, the Dutch came over here in the 18th century and stuck their fingers in the dykes for us. Well, that was Lincolnshire actually, but you may be confusing ‘flat’ with ‘boggy’. An easy mistake if you’ve only ever visited the in-laws in Ely. *ducks*
Isn’t it funny? In France I often used wild leeks – and garlic, but where we live now, I only seem to be able to find wild garlic. Must Try Harder. These look yummy.
I really need to get out of London and find some wild garlic. The leeks are good but the garlic…mmm…
Oh wow. I love that last photo!!!
They are so gooey, I’m not quite sure how they manage to hold together!
LOVE the gooey filling! Big yum!!
Can’t go wrong with gooey cheese! 🙂
I agree!!!!