BS: Fennel

Subject: BS: Fennel
From: Sooz
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 02:29 AM

We've grown fennel for the first time this year and the bulbs are starting to swell nicely. When I buy the stuff I usually braise it in dry cider with a few other veggies but we have quite a lot so I wondered if anyone has any delicious recipes to share. (I'd share the fennel but can't work out how to get it into cyberspace!)

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Peace
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 02:37 AM

719 recipes here.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Sooz
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 02:54 AM

Wonderful - have you tried any of them?

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Peace
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 03:30 AM

Sooz, no I haven't.

I do like fennel and endive salad. Also, fennel is great as the thing to use to pick up dip. I also like fennel seed in some recipes. However, it's very difficult to get it where I am (because people just don't know what it is other than the seeds which are sold at exhorbitant prices by commercial herb and spice companies), so I seldom get to have any. Used to eat it often, but I have never had it cooked.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Paul Burke
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 03:32 AM

Stir fry it with garlic, ginger, Jerusalem artichokes and butterbeans.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Peace
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 03:45 AM

Now THAT sounds good.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 04:01 AM

It also sounds windy!
G.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 05:46 AM

Just remembered the Italian word for fennel is something like fennochio, sadly the word for homosexual is almost exactly the same. So be careful who, or how you ask for your fennel in Italy.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: leeneia
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 11:55 AM

At the Italian grocery store where I used to live, they put the seeds in the Italian sausage. Now I use it in spaghetti sauce, which I make using ground pork patties and homegrown tomatoes.

Peace, there is a spice company called Tones which sells fennel seed quite reasonably. See if there are any groceries near you which stock Tones' ware.

We have a plant of bronze fennel in the garden at our church. Since few people visit the garden (fear of the "homelss") we've decided it should be more of a butterfly garden. Last week I saw a large and beautiful black swallowtail checking out the fennel.

Here's a link to a picture of a black swallowtail.

Of course, we are resigned to not eating our fennel.

http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg266.html

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 12:05 PM

Does the root taste anything like the seeds? There are a couple of recipes in the August Martha Stewart Living that look quite attractive and tasty.

Tones is usually available in bulk supply places like Sam's Club, if you have those in Canada.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: MMario
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 12:08 PM

the whole plant has that licorice-y taste. I like to make a fennel and orange stuffing for poultry; it's also good marinated in italian dressing and grilled. goes well with sausage

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 12:26 PM

Sooz, your recipe sounds delightful.

Anyone make kummel? It's not something stocked by the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, so I haven't had it in years.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 12:28 PM

Oops, I'm too quick on the draw -- kummel is caraway, not fennel.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Sooz
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 12:42 PM

Thanks for all these ideas.
SRS it all tastes of aniseed but apparently roasting it makes it sweeter. It can be quite tough but this freshly picked stuff shouldn't be. The first bulb is going to be a salad.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Kaleea
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 01:35 PM

Now I know why the owners of the Italian restaurant were laughing so hard as a couple of fellers were trying to order something that sounded like fennel the other day.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 04:31 PM

John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, is famous and loved for planting apples everywhere he went. He also planted something called "Dog Fennel" which reportedly had an "exceptionally foul smell" -- but apparently he thought it would save the world from all manner of diseases.

Is this the same stuff being talked about in this thread???

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 04:39 PM

An invasive weed with a noxious smell they tell me, but; it is attractive to butterflies and bees. So he may have been companion planting them in order to attract the bees, and thereby pollinate the apples. Makes sense to me!
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: dianavan
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 06:35 PM

We had Florence Fennel in the garden on the island. As I've said before, there was no corner store. My kids had to go without candy (poor darlings). We had to devise treats from what was around. One of their favorite treats was to pull a stalk of fennel to suck and chew. We called it 'green licorice'. Another was to fill their pockets with poppers from the bull kelp. They'd happily munch on them all day long because they were crunchy and salty. I called them 'island chips'.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 07:14 PM

We played with bull kelp when I was a kid, but we never ate it. Is this something that you knew about, or someone just tried eating the bulb one day to see what it tasted like?

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jul 06 - 01:04 AM

The Italian restaurants in NYC used to offer fennel seeds coated with a sugar shell like MnMs. Alwyas pink and white. They were served as a digestive aid. Not bad.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Sooz
Date: 22 Jul 06 - 04:10 AM

Hey SINS I have a bag of those in the cupboard which I haven't tried yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: dianavan
Date: 22 Jul 06 - 11:36 AM

Pink and white, coated with sugar? I thought that was anise seed. In East Indian restaurants here, in Vancouver, its usually in a little dish by the cash register. Like an after dinner mint.

SRS - Its not the big bulbs of the kelp they eat, its the little poppers on the leafy portion of the kelp. They are different sizes depending on the season. We eat alot of seaweed on the islands. They all have different flavours and textures. We even dry it for use in soups. Of course you need to harvest it in CLEAN water. My ex (a fisherman) now gathers seaweed with roe attached. Its a delicacy in Japan. I'm always amazed at how healthy free food is.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: mrdux
Date: 23 Jul 06 - 01:13 AM

here's another one:

slice the fennel bulb thin. melt some butter in a pan. add the fennel, and then add enough water to cover. cook, uncovered, over a medium flame for 25 minutes or so, until tender and the water evaporated. when it's done add a handful of grated parmigiano and stir well.

and our local indian places have a bowl of cardomom pods at the cash register. a digestive and breath freshener.

michael

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 23 Jul 06 - 12:12 PM

I used to keep cardomom in my pockets to chew on at odd (or not so odd) times. Thanks for reminding me!

I received a bag of the sugar coated seeds (fennel? anise? can't remember) from my Secret Santa a couple years ago. Pink, white, and orange, I think. Lovely flavor. Need to find more.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Jul 06 - 08:01 PM

I went to school with a bloke called Fennel. His Dad was something to do with Penguin Russian dictionary.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Jul 06 - 05:30 AM

Nothing to do with the lovely Fenella Fielding I suppose?
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Paul Burke
Date: 24 Jul 06 - 06:05 AM

No, this Fenella is far more beautiful. She lives on the Isle of Man, and I'd love to ride her, to stoke her, to make her really hot and steamy....

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Jul 06 - 04:23 AM

there was a young chappy called Fennel
who confided, my Uncle Len'll
Just for a lark
Sit up and bark
We don't let him out of his kennel

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: bobad
Date: 25 Jul 06 - 10:33 AM

"There is a bit of confusion about these two plants. For some reason,the fennel plant, which resembles celery with fern like tops, has been called sweet anise in produce markets. The true anise is cultivated only for its seeds. So what you see labelled "sweet anise" in your market is probably fennel, but no matter what you call it, this is a highly interesting vegetable. Every part of this aromatic plant has a taste and aroma similar to licorice. The stems are eaten like celery,uncook, or cooked and served as a vegetable (heavenly with apples in waldorf salad) available from September to May.

http://www.recipeland.com/recipe/359

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Jul 06 - 01:06 PM

Just sliced some Florence fennel and an onion, layered them in a pyrex dish sprinkled it with olive oile, topped it with chopped plum tomatoes, and covered the whole lot in grated parmesan cheese. I'll let you know what it's like when I've tried it.
[It's in the oven as I type]

Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Jul 06 - 01:17 PM

well that was five hours ago...you're giving it a long time in that oven.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Jul 06 - 06:00 PM

It wasn't in long enough [35 mins], and it was a wee bit too 'al dente', but tasty nonetheless.
G.

Subject: RE: BS: Fennel
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Jul 06 - 06:30 PM

perhaps if you'd microwaved it a bit first...?