Ottolenghi’s spring onion recipes

Two ideas for making the most out of the humble spring onion: a sharp soup with an Iranian twist, and a flavour-packed Tunisian street snack, brik Spring onion soup I recently started using a wonderful product from Iran called kashk. Kash, or kishk, signifies different things throughout the Middle East, Turkey and Greece, but is often used to name food stuffs produced by the process of fermentation and then drying of yoghurt or curdled milk, turning them into a powder that can later be reconstituted. Iranian kashk is used to bulk up soups and stews, and gives them a wonderfully deep and sharp aroma, a bit like feta but in runny form. I get my kashk from specialist Iranian shops, a few of which I’m lucky to have found dotted around London. But don’t worry if you can’t get hold of kashk – a mixture of crème fraîche and grated parmesan (or other mature cheese) makes a perfectly good substitute. Serves four. 700g spring onions (a large variety with a thick bulb, if possible) 40g unsalted butter 50ml olive oil, plus extra to finish 2 whole medium garlic heads, cloves peeled and halved lengthways 3 bay leaves 300g frozen peas 1 medium courgette, diced 1.3 litres vegetable stock 80g parsley leaves, roughly chopped 60g kashk (or crème fraîche/parmesan mix) 20g mint leaves, roughly chopped Grated zest of ½ lemon Salt and black pepper Cut the white of the spring onions into 1.5cm-long slices and the green into 2.5cm-long segments. Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the oil, white spring onion slices, halved garlic cloves and some salt and pepper, and sauté on moderate heat for 10-15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Add the green spring onion segments and the bay leaves, cook for about 10 minutes, add the peas and courgette, and cook for another five minutes. Remove half the vegetables from the pan and set aside. Cover the remaining vegetables with the stock, bring to a boil and simmer for three minutes. Remove the bay leaves, add the parsley and blitz in a

Posted by on March 25, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.