The Chef Within

Fennel is one of those vegetables that I discovered later in life.  It has a deliciously mild taste (a slight licorice essence) and is a little spendy making it something that needs to be used carefully.  Fennel looks a little like celery. 

Most of the time when a recipe calls for fennel it is referring to the base or bulb at the bottom.  The stalks are removed. 

They can be thrown away but I like to save them for making a vegetable or chicken stock.  Just give them a good rinse, fold them in half …

and then  keep them in a havy duty plastic bag in the freezer.  This is my stock bag in which I keep leek tops and stalks of fennel.  They just accumulate in the bag and when you are making stock of any kind, just take what you need.  Because the tops are kept in the freezer they will last indefinately and nothing is wasted.

Once the tops are removed you can cut into the bulb in any way you like.  Normally I would recommend cutting the bulb in half lengthwise …

and then cutting in strips across the bulb. 

Then take your chef’s knife and cut very fine slices on a diagonal. 

The reason to cut on the diagonal is because you should follow the contour of the  core.  You can literally shave off the bulb on both sides and even across the top…

until there is nothing left but the core.  I suppose that could go in the stock bag as well.

In this case I used the fennel for a salad.  When fennel is raw, it can be rather tough.  That is why I prefer to slice the pieces very, very finely. 

It creates more pieces, distributes the flavor better throughout the salad.  If you were going to saute it then you could cut the pieces larger and they would naturally soften as they cook.

My favorite way of cooking fennel is to roast it in the oven.  Please refer to earlier posts on how that is done (click here).  In fennel’s case I would simply take the bulb that you cut in half and then cut that into quarters or sixths or eighths (depending on the size of the bulb)…

making sure every piece has part of the core attached to keep the pieces and layers together.  Roasted fennel is awesome and great with delicate tasting meats like chicken and fish. 

Because fennel has such a mild taste it can often be lost in dishes.  Personally, I like to prepare fennel one of two ways.  I think the flavor is best when it is raw or when it is roasted by itself.  When fennel gets mixed up with alot of other ingredients I fell like it looses it’s essence.  When it is raw or roasted that essence comes through more prominently.